Ducati Sporting Club UK > News Items > Ducati Press Releases > Bulega takes the top slot on Friday at Magny-Cours. Ninth place for Bautista.

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World Superbike | 2025 | R9 | Magny-Cours (France) | Friday 5 September 2025

Bulega takes the top slot on Friday at Magny-Cours. Ninth place for Bautista.

Free practice for the French Round, the ninth event of the 2025 WorldSBK season, ended with Nicolò Bulega in first place and Álvaro Bautista in ninth.

It was a solid Friday for the Italian, who showed tangible improvement between FP1 and FP2. After setting the third fastest time and working intensively on set-up with his team in the morning, Bulega returned to the track in the afternoon session on soft tyres and even managed to set a new all-time track record (1'35.428) in the final run, finishing in first place with a 4-tenths advantage over Lowes (Ducati).

Alvaro Bautista also managed to improve in the afternoon, but without taking that decisive step to stay close to the leading group. The Spanish rider finished ninth with a time of 1'36.512.

Nicolò Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #11)
“I'm satisfied with the final lap time, but I have to admit that we're still missing something in race pace. We definitely need to improve, especially with used tyres, when I can't lap consistently. In any case, I think we have a solid base to work from”.

Álvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #19)
“It wasn't an easy day. We did FP1 with the hard tyre, and the feeling wasn't what I had hoped for, especially in the corner exit. I had better feelings with the softer tyre in the afternoon, but still not enough to be competitive. We will study the data to understand how to improve tomorrow.”