Nicolò Bulega: “With Toprak the only thing you can do is win.”
Credit: Dorna WorldSBK
Nicolò Bulega had a good weekend in Estoril however it may end up not being enough in the fight for first in the FIM World Superbike championship. After a season of mostly ups despite being second in the championship, the problems that he had has on the bike were mostly out of his control and some unlucky moments caused the championship to not be as close as it could have been heading into the final round at Jerez next weekend. He qualified second in the Superpole before finishing second in a closely contested race in Race One. The Superpole Race was even closer, the gap between the front two of himself and Toprak Razgatlıoğlu not dropping below a few tenths of a second before taking the win in Race Two.
This weekend means the championship may be more out of reach with only one round left and Bulega spoke of his potential missed opportunities to be closer to Razgatlıoğlu: “I think in the middle of the championship, we go to some tracks that was very bad for us and very good for him. And in the track, where I was good, we had some bad luck. Toprak, for sure, always very, very strong. It is an incredible season. But me too, I was always, always here and try to do my maximum. I just did one small mistake in Balaton. We collected the wrong tyre. So, I think I did the maximum results. I think bad luck can happen after three times because I had a problem two times in Assen. […] At this point, maybe I was not first, but even more closer [in the championship].”
Bulega spoke earlier in the weekend about how he has come into this weekend unwell: “The problem is, like I said yesterday, unfortunately, when I was coming here, I had some problems with my stomach virus. So I’m still not 100% with my stomach. So, I didn’t eat a lot during the weekend, so I’m more tired for this one. Also, the main difference between yesterday and today. Yesterday, I used a lot of time, the first laps, and then when I tried to catch Toprak, I finished the tyre. In the Superpole Race, for 10 laps, you don’t need to save tyres. You have to push 100%. And Toprak was still a little bit faster than me. Today I understand, we made a little step on the bike for corner entry, and I knew that if I can start well, keep my pace, and try to be gentle with the front type, try to save until the end, I can win the race, and my plan, it works. So I’m quite in peace with myself.”
Credit: Dorna WorldSBK
Ahead of Jerez, Bulega spoke of his love for the next circuit and his determination heading into the last round: “Jerez is one of my favourite tracks, it was my first podium in Moto3, I really like Jerez. Last year, I won two races, and I was battling with Toprak and then a red flag [happened]. It was a bit unlucky but I was very fast so I will try my best. With Toprak the only thing you can do is win, but now it’s still not enough. So now I’m just thinking about trying to win races, and then we will see what we will achieve at the end of the season.”
Aruba.it Racing Team – Ducati won their fourth consecutive Team’s Championship after the second race this weekend with both riders, Bulega and Álvaro Bautista, finishing on all three race podiums. Bulega reacted: “I’m very happy for the team. They work very hard every day. Also at home, not only here at the races so it’s good to achieve that.”
