But neither rider was completely happy with their feeling on the bike, Bulega in particular saying he is at \u201c90 per cent\u201d with his feeling in comments that echoed what he said in Portimao where he won all three races leading every lap.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started in a good way this morning,\u201d Nicolo Bulega<\/a> told WorldSBK.com after FP2 in the Netherlands, \u201cbut I was not very happy with the feeling with the bike.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe improved a little bit today, but I\u2019m still 90 per cent, so we have to work tomorrow to find that last 10 per cent.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Bulega added that what he is missing is in corner entry.<\/p>\n \u201cI miss a little bit the feeling with the front to put the bike where I want with the brake, it\u2019s a bit difficult to bring the bike in with the brake,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI have to release a little bit too early. But I think it\u2019s a situation that we can manage for tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the imperfect feeling, Bulega was content with his performance.<\/p>\n \u201cAnyway I\u2019m happy because I have a good pace, I have a good feeling with the bike,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n \u201cWe did also great work with used tyres, I never changed tyres this afternoon, so it\u2019s a good Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n Lecuona \u201cfrustrated\u201d Iker Lecuona, 2026 Dutch WorldSBK, pit box. Credit: Gold and Goose.<\/p>\n \u00a9\u00a0Gold & Goose<\/p>\n For Iker Lecuona<\/a>, the speed was not the same as Bulega\u2019s in practice at Assen, but it was still decent enough with the third-best time at the end of the day.<\/p>\n The Spanish rider was nonetheless dissatisfied after Friday\u2019s running, feeling he\u2019d never been able to find comfort on the bike.<\/p>\n \u201cBit frustrated, overall,\u201d Lecuona told WorldSBK.com.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not really happy with the feeling because even in the morning I don\u2019t feel right on the bike, don\u2019t feel comfortable.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis afternoon we don\u2019t find a way to make a good step. We changed something on the bike that worked in some points that we [didn\u2019t expect], so we improved some points that we are okay \u2013 that is good, but we don\u2019t improve any points that we struggle.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSo, a bit frustrated talking about feeling on the bike.\u201d<\/p>\n While Bulega\u2019s problems are generally in corner entry, Lecuona had a similar complaint to BMW\u2019s Miguel Oliveira<\/a>, who said he couldn\u2019t get the M1000 RR to turn in the flowing corners<\/a>. For Lecuona, it\u2019s high-speed turns where he can\u2019t carry the speed he wants to.<\/p>\n \u201cJust in the fast corners I don\u2019t feel good on the bike,\u201d the Spaniard explained.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n \u201cI go wide every time I want to go faster.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSo, it\u2019s something that we need to work, we need to understand what happened, and try something for tomorrow because that track has a lot of fast corners so I struggle in that area that is quite critical here.\u201d<\/p>\n As with Bulega, Lecuona was strong despite his imperfect feeling on the bike, so there is reason for him to be optimistic about his potential in terms of results.<\/p>\n \u201cMy teammate [Bulega] was faster, but the rest were slower than me [over] 10 or 15 laps,\u201d said Lecuona.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, we are good in pace performance, but still I miss something, so let\u2019s see tomorrow.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, we are there, so we can think about the podium, but right now I don\u2019t think about that, I think about FP3, trying to improve, and trying to feel more comfortable and fast on the bike.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Both Nicolo Bulega and Iker Lecuona were not happy with the way they felt while riding during practice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[6910,64,63,234256,806,805,803,804,6909,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-613600","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-aruba-it-racing-ducati","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-iker-lecuona","12":"tag-motor","13":"tag-motor-sports","14":"tag-motosport","15":"tag-motosports","16":"tag-nicolo-bulega","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Iker](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/gng_1304802_hires.jpg\")
<\/p>\n