GREG HAINES
Bulega and Bautista on the podium but have no answers for BMW
INSIGHT
Reporting direct from the Misano World Superbike round
Ducati enjoyed what other teams might see as a successful weekend at Misano – with five podium finishes from a possible six for their factory team riders. However, there is work to do for Alvaro Bautista and new team front-runner Nicolo Bulega if they are to get back on top of the steamroller that is Toprak Razgatlioglu and his formidablelooking BMW.
Sunday’s Race 2 saw Ducati celebrate their 99th and 100th Misano podiums, with Bulega second in all three contests while Bautista managed a pair of thirds despite a costly Sprint Race crash that dropped him out of the points. Ironically, his incident came at Tramonto corner while pushing hard to keep up – exactly the same thing that happened to Jonathan Rea while striving to catch Bautista in 2019. The result meant Bautista started the last race from 11th, wrecking any serious chances.
As witnessed in tests at Cremona and Misano preceding the races, both Ducati riders struggled with a lack of front-end feeling from the Panigale V4 R.
“Toprak was on another level, it was very difficult to stay with him and especially with the problems on the front,” said Italy’s Bulega, who sits 21 points in arrears of the Turk but now three ahead of his Spanish teammate. “It was okay on a new tyre but, once they wore, there was a drop. I decided 20 points for second place was better than nothing. We have to work.
Sometimes I make mistakes due to my lack of experience and changing my style isn’t natural yet, but it’s incredible to be the leading Ducati rider at this point [one third of the way into the season].”
Since debuting in WSBK five years ago, Bautista has never been beaten by a teammate, although there’s a genuine chance that he could be this season.
“We’ve changed the bike more this weekend than the whole of 2023!” he said, the lightweight rider having had ballast added this year in order to prevent him from having as much of a straight-line speed advantage as he did during the previous two campaigns.
“It didn’t help confidence level
