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Nicolo Bulega aiming to bounce back in Estoril WorldSBK after “strange” Aragon Round | World Superbikes
Nicolo Bulega goes into this weekend’s WorldSBK Estoril Round as the closest challenger to Toprak Razgatlioglu, but after a weekend he described as “strange” at the previous Aragon Round the Italian is focused on his performance, rather than the points.
Speed was not the problem for Bulega in Aragon — the Ducati rider qualified on pole position. But he was unable to restart Race 1 after the red flag for a technical problem, was out-battled in the Superpole Race by both Toprak Razgatlioglu and Alvaro Bautista, and made mistakes early in Race 2 to leave him out of contention for victory after only a few laps.
“I hope to be fast also this weekend,” Bulega said ahead of this weekend’s Estoril Round. “In Aragon I was fast but it was a strange weekend, so I would just like to have a normal weekend.”
It was the aforementioned technical issue on the warm-up lap for the restart of Race 1 in Aragon that caused the biggest points loss for Bulega at the last round. Unable to take the start, he could do nothing to prevent Toprak Razgatlioglu pulling 20 points further away in the riders’ standings as the Turkish rider took second place.
“For sure, it was not a nice moment,” Bulega said. “We lose a lot of points, we lose the possibility to take some more points [from Razgatlioglu’s advantage].
“Also because I feel very good, especially on Saturday the race pace was not so strong, and I feel that I was fast on Saturday, especially.
“Then, Sunday was a bit difficult because in the first laps I did some mistakes with other riders and I lose a lot of positions. It was a strange, unlucky weekend in Aragon.”
Although Bulega is the closest rider to Razgatlioglu in the standings, a deficit of 39 points means there is a possibility for Razgatlioglu to win the title in Sunday’s Race 2.
Asked if he had any target for the Estoril Round regarding the championship, Bulega said, simply, “I don’t have a goal, just to enjoy this weekend, try to do my best, and then we will see.”
