Nicolo Brega’s FP2 session at Estoril World SBK was disrupted by a ‘mistake’ outside of his control, but he still came out on top in the session.
The Italian ended the day on a positive note at Estoril on Friday, becoming the only rider to clock a time under 1 minute 35 seconds. This circuit is not one of the circuits for which the Ducati Panigale V4 R is most suitable for him, despite winning the Superpole race there in 2024.
“To be honest, today was a very good day,” Nicolo Brega told WorldSBK.com after FP2 in Estoril.
“Normally Estoril is not a difficult course, but it is not our best course, so it is important to start like this.
“In FP2 we improved some small things from FP1, so I’m happy with the work we did today and I think we understand what we can improve for tomorrow.”
It was a good day on the bike for Brega, but he had a small problem in FP2 through no fault of his own.
“To be honest, the plan for my second run in FP2 was to do a longer run than I did,” he explained.
“But unfortunately a few laps later I saw the checkered flag. I think they made a mistake and brought out the checkered flag during the session.”
“So I went back to the pits. Me and Van der Mark and a few others saw the checkered flag and pitted. But the plan was to stay on track.
“But then I realized it was just a mistake. Then I went back on track and did the remaining laps, which was very good.”
Brega’s only clear rival in Estoril is Toprak Razgatrioglu, who is 36 points behind in the world superbike rider standings ahead of race one tomorrow.
“Right now, I think me and Toprak (Razgatlioglu) are a little faster than the others,” he said.
“But anyway, we’re all very close, especially me and him.
“But it’s still Friday so we’ll see what happens over the weekend.”