News

Bulega: "I want to enjoy this moment… but I also want to stay focused, the Championship is long"

Tuesday, 25 April 2023 07:23 GMT

    • The Italian rider took a double in the Netherlands to extend his Championship lead and he now has four wins to his name in 2023

    The FIM Supersport World Championship returned to action at the TT Circuit Assen for the Pirelli Dutch Round, the third round of the season, and Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team) continued where he left off after the first two rounds of the season. He claimed two wins at the historic Dutch circuit to take his tally of victories in 2023 to four and to extend his Championship lead to 37 points.

    Bulega claimed pole position with a lap record at the TT Circuit Assen as he set a 1’36.900s, two tenths clear of nearest rival Federico Caricasulo (Althea Racing Team). The pair had an early battle in Race 1 but Bulega was able to pull away from the field to claim victory, before a similar story in Race 2. He won both races with a more than four second margin to second place, which was Marcel Schroetter (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) in Race 1 and Stefano Manzi (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) in Race 2.

    Reacting after his Race 2 victory, Bulega said: “It’s an incredible. More perfect than this is impossible. I want to say a huge thanks to my team because the bike was incredible. All weekend, it was perfect. I really enjoyed riding my bike all weekend at this incredible track. I love Assen. I want to enjoy this moment, but I also want to stay focused because the Championship is still very long, so I want to continue in this way and try to be fast in every race. I had to stay very focused because it was very easy to make a mistake in this situation. When you are alone, you have to stay focused on yourself and on your bike. It’s difficult. I’m happy because we didn’t make any mistakes.”

    Bulega is the only repeat winner so far in the 2023 campaign and has four race wins to his name, while Can Oncu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) and Caricasulo have the other two. In the Championship standings, Bulega moves onto 127 points out of a possible 150 available after three rounds, and he is 37 points clear of Manzi in second place. Bulega’s fourth win put him level with Jamie Whitham, Chris Vermeulen, Kevin Curtain and Lorenzo Baldassarri in 23rd place in the all-time list of WorldSSP winners, while it was also his 14th podium in the Championship.

    Watch more WorldSSP action throughout 2023 using the WorldSBK VideoPass!