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Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) has seen the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship table turned on him as, from his 34-point lead after Cremona, the Sophomore Italian rider now finds himself 26 points down behind defending Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) after the Turkish phenom has put together a run of nine consecutive race wins. Speaking with the press after Sunday’s Race 2, Bulega touched on his weekend, the final day’s tricky conditions, and looks ahead to Round 9 at Magny-Cours with optimism as the Riders’ Championship hangs in the balance.

BULEGA DETERMINED TO REFINE HIS RIDING: “Today in these tricky conditions this morning, it was not my best race. I did not ride very well. I need to improve in those conditions

From the outset of the weekend, Bulega looked a touch off of his usual scalding pace; he found himself struggling to land consistent results in his usual position of P1or P2. On Saturday, he qualified in P4 in the Tissot Superpole session, followed by a Saturday Race 1 P2. His P2 did well to mitigate the #1’s point gain; however, Razgatlioglu’s 3.7s margin was a foreboding sign to Bulega and the rest of the grid. Sunday’s pair of final races saw Bulega record his worst-ever result in the Championship, finishing in P13, before fighting his way back up the grid from a P10 start in Race 2 to stick a second, P2 finish of the weekend.

Offering an overview of his weekend at Balaton, Bulega said: “Honestly, it was a difficult weekend, especially this morning in the Superpole Race. We started poorly on Friday because I had no feeling with my bike, but then on Saturday, we improved for Race 1. Then, today, in these tricky conditions this morning, it wasn't my best riding. I did not ride very well; I need to improve in those conditions. I had zero feeling. Then, in Race 2, I was very focused on recovering positions.”

BULEGA'S RECOVERY RUN: “From there, I tried just to do my pace, and it was enough to earn P2”

 His P13 Superpole Race finish saw him miss the scoring positions, while his title rival Razgatlioglu topped the race, adding 12 points to the Turk’s tally. The silver lining for Bulega is that if a poor showing had to happen in any race, it happened in the shorter Superpole race, where there are fewer points on the line, meaning that Bulega did not get as badly burned as he could have. Additionally, he responded well to the bad race by showing good pace in Race 2, charging up from P13 to place second.

On his recovery in Race 2 after the Superpole Race gamble, and looking forward to Magny-Cours, Bulega said: “After the Superpole Race, I was very focused to recover from the mistake in the morning’s race. I tried to start well, and I had some overtakes to get to P2. From there, I tried just to do my pace, and it was enough to earn P2. It’s true that Toprak wasn’t there because of his big crash, but last year in Magny-Cours I also won two races, it’s also a strong track for me. I also won two races in WorldSSP at Magny-Cours, so I have a good feeling, it’s a track that I like, and I will do my best.”

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