{"id":653217,"date":"2026-05-06T11:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/653217\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T11:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:47:08","slug":"nicolo-bulegas-lap-time-revealed-on-850cc-ducati-motogp-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/653217\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicolo Bulega\u2019s lap time revealed on 850cc Ducati MotoGP debut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fresh from a record 16th WorldSBK victory in a row, Nicolo Bulega returned to Italy for a debut on Ducati\u2019s 850cc MotoGP prototype at Mugello.<\/p>\n<p>After replacing the injured Marc Marquez during the final <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MotoGP <\/a>rounds of last season, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/wsbk\/racer\/1043899\/nicolo-bulega\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bulega<\/a> signed to help develop the Ducati&#8217;s 2027 machine alongside his WorldSBK commitments.<\/p>\n<p>Official factory test rider <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/889494\/michele-pirro\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Michele Pirro<\/a> gave the 850cc a surprise debut during last month\u2019s V2 Champ Academy test at Misano, then was back on the bike for the start of the private Mugello test (also attended by KTM and Honda):<\/p>\n<p> Show Instagram Embedded Content<\/p>\n<p>Loading this video will expose you to potential cookies and tracking by the provider<\/p>\n<p>Bulega then rushed back from Hungary to beat the forecast bad weather and make his 850cc debut on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>GPOne.com reports that the 26-year-old set the pace with a best time of 1m 47.2s from 20 laps on the Pirelli-shod machine.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>That lap time put Bulega 0.4s ahead of Pirro and 1.3s clear of Dani Pedrosa (KTM).<\/p>\n<p>The official 1000cc\/Michelin Mugello qualifying record is a 1m 44.169s, set by Marc Marquez last season.<\/p>\n<p>The race lap record is 1m 45.770s by Pecco Bagnaia in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Ducati has confirmed to Crash.net that Bulega only rode on Monday afternoon, due to bad weather on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Bulega\u2019s 2027 Ducati MotoGP race options appear to hinge <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/news\/1093754\/1\/nicolo-bulega-ducati-motogp-chance-depends-lot-other-riders\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">on whether Fabio di Giannantonio renews with VR46<\/a>, or signs for the factory KTM team.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresh from a record 16th WorldSBK victory in a row, Nicolo Bulega returned to Italy for a debut&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,17197,8456,806,805,803,804,6909,85],"class_list":["post-653217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ducati","tag-ducati-lenovo-team","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-nicolo-bulega","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653217","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=653217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}