Coming away from PI, Nicolo Bulega appeared to be in a class of his own, with the rest of the pack left fighting for second place in the championship. Portimao didn’ t entirely dispel that notion either, as Bulega took pole in quali and went on to win all three races but, whilst no one else approached Bulega’ s consistency at Round One, Round Two was a much more ordered affair with the same top five being in all three races. The race schedule followed the established format of two full-length races( one on Saturday and another on Sunday) and one ten-lap sprint race( also on Sunday, and only scoring half the points of a full-length race).
ARUBA. IT DUCATI Bulega’ s teammate, Iker Lecuona, showed real class at Portimao and even came very close to taking out pole before Bulega nailed it on his last flying lap. Lecuona then put in mature performances to score three well-deserved second place finishes in the races. If there’ s one area that Lecuona needs to improve on, it’ s his race starts, he’ s noticeably slower off the line compared to Bulega and has a tendency to drop places almost immediately, although to his credit, he regains those lost positions quickly and efficiently but inevitably puts some additional wear on his tyres in the process which likely gives Bulega an edge, as if he needed one, as the laps progress. If Lecuona can brush-up on his start-line technique, he’ ll be even closer to challenging Bulega for the lead in the races. Aruba. it Ducati took a chance on him after his wilderness years at WorldSBK HRC Honda and if he maintains Portimao form for the rest of the season, he’ ll likely repay their faith in full.
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