Nicolo Bulega fastest as WorldSBK testing ends at Phillip Island
Nicolo Bulega completes a perfect pre-season testing sweep at Phillip ꦏIsland.

Nicolo Bulega will go into this weekend’s Australian WorldSBK season opener haviౠng been fastest in all four track sessions at the Phillip Island test.
Unbeateಌn in both Monday sessions, Ducati's reigning title runner-up improved his best lap to 1m 28.680s on Tuesday morning.
Rain then arrived, creating a damp track for the final𒈔 WorldSBK outi🍃ng before a frantic final 20-minutes on slicks.
Bulega only appeared for the last five minutes but continued his supremacy by snatching the top spot from reigning champion Toprak Razgatlioglu with a 1m 29.133s o🎐n his last lap.
The Italian’s perfect form puts him as the man to beat heading into the race weekend, finishing the test a subs🎉tantial 0.482s clear of Go Eleven Ducati’s Andrea Iannone on combined times.
Barni’s Danilo Petrucci also improved on the morning ofꦓ day two to complete an all-Panigale top three, half-a-second be𝐆hind Bulega.
BMW’s Razgatlioglu recovered from the shock of an early highside to claim third on Monday and was again the top non-Ducati 🌟on day two, when he set his best time in the damp last session.
Razgatlioglu had been losing out on top speed (11th on the charts, 7.7km/h slower Bulega),ඣ contributing to him being ranked just eighth through Sector 1 this morning.
By contrast, the last half of the lap was Bulega’s best, while team-mate Alvaro Bauti🌺sta set the Sector 1 pa🐼ce on his way to fifth on the combined timesheets.
Six-time world champion Jonathan Rea wa✃s absent on Tuesday and will miss the opening race weekend after suffering fractures to his left foot in a day one accid🦋ent.
Rea’s team-mate Andrea Locatelli was the leading Yamaha in sixth (+0.813s), followed by the Bimotas of Alex 🐬Lowes and Axel Bas🐲sani. Honda’s Xavi Vierge (+1.132s) and MGM Bonovo rider Scott Redding (1.182s) completed the top ten.
Tuesday morning saw red flags after accidents for Garrett Gerloff (Turn 8) and late𓆏r Tarran Mackenzie (Turn 6), with both escaping serious injury.
Rookie Ryan Vickers, who impressed with eighth on Monday, was the other rider to crash (Turn 4) this morn𒐪ing.
Dominique Aegerte🌠r 🐭(17th) was the only rider other than Razgatlioglu to lap quicker in the afternoon than the morning.
Free practice for the Australian WorldSBK round starts ꦺon Friday morning.
T♍his🧸 weekend’s races will again feature mandatory pit stops due to concerns over tyre endurance, although the test suggests such fears were unfounded.
Weather forecasts currently predict dry weather on Friday and Saturday, but a 50% chance of rain on Sunday🤡.

Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issu🐻es.