Iker Lecuona led both Friday practice sessions at Cremona, putting the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati rider at the top of the WorldSBK Italian Round standings after the opening day. His best lap was a 1'28.108 on the Panigale V4 R, and he also showed competitive race pace during the sessions.

Lecuona said the bike felt good from FP1 and that the team made another step forward in the afternoon. His lead did not change his immediate priorities: rather than claim favourite status for the race, he pointed to qualifying as the first major task before the weekend’s racing begins.

Nicolò Bulega faced a more disrupted Friday, with a minor crash in the morning followed by another in the afternoon. The second incident left him in the garage for a long period during FP2. Even so, he placed second in the combined classification with a 1'28.362, around a quarter of a second behind Lecuona.

Bulega said the two crashes had interrupted the team’s work, but added that it had identified what was not functioning and would work on a fix. As for the title fight, his attention was on Saturday’s FP3 rather than the World Championship at that stage. Lecuona also maintained that, despite the crashes, Bulega remained the rider who had shown strong speed at Cremona.