Ducati Sporting Club UK > News Items > Ducati Press Releases > Bulega and Bautista finish third and sixth respectively in Friday free practice at Donington Park. Huertas on WorldSSP pole again for the fourth time.

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World Superbike | 2024 | R5 | Donington (UK) | Friday 12 July 2024

Bulega and Bautista finish third and sixth respectively in Friday free practice at Donington Park. Huertas on WorldSSP pole again for the fourth time.

The Donington Park circuit proved to be extremely challenging for Alvaro Bautista, Nicolò Bulega, and their respective Ducati Panigale V4R machines. However, they showed solid progress on Friday of the UK Round, the sixth event of the 2024 WorldSBK season.

After encountering some difficulties in FP1, the Aruba.it Racing - Ducati team's riders were able to lower their lap times significantly in the afternoon. Nicolò Bulega finished the afternoon's free practice sessions with a time of 1'26.238, just 225 milliseconds behind Razgatlioglu (BMW), improving by almost one second and three-tenths compared to the morning. Despite a harmless slide at Turn 1 halfway through FP2, Alvaro Bautista also showed tangible progress, finishing in sixth position in the combined standings with a time of 1'26.580.

Nicolò Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #11)
"I am satisfied with what we achieved today on a very demanding track for us. Certainly, the day didn't start with the best feeling, as happened, for example, in Misano, but we worked on improving between FP1 and FP2. It's clear that it's still not enough and that we need to take another step, but I am confident, especially because it's my first time at Donington with the Panigale V4R, and every lap represents a growth moment for me."

Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #1)
"The feelings weren't bad this morning. However, we had to work on the setup to adapt the bike to such a technical track. I also want to thank the team for the incredible job they did to get me back on track quickly after the crash. Surely the feeling is not the same as last year, but I am still satisfied with how things went today."

WorldSSP

Fourth pole position of the season for Adrian Huertas and the Ducati Panigale V2 of the Aruba.it Racing WSSP team. Despite a very difficult FP1 due to some issues that prevented the Spanish rider from riding consistently, Huertas demonstrated a very sharp pace in the Superpole, recording a time of 1'28.322, which leads him to the first position on the starting grid for tomorrow.

Adrian Huertas (Aruba.it Racing WSSP #99)
"I would like to dedicate this pole position to my team, who did an extraordinary job after the problems we had to face in FP1. At the same time, I believe the greatest satisfaction is not the grid position but the race pace we managed to achieve."