Nicolo Bulega, Toprak Razgatlioglu react after Dutch WorldSBK “traffic” incident

Nicolo Bulega and Toprak Razgatlioglu were both involved in an incident in WorldSBK Superpole at this weekend’s Dutch Round, although both were relatively dismissive of the incident.

The incident itself began when Bulega exited the pits a few minutes ahead of the rest of the field, going off-sequence versus his rivals for the second and final respective runs of Superpole.

He started the first flying lap of his second run just as Razgatlioglu and Axel Bassani were exiting the pits to begin their final run, and the Italian caught them at the end of the back straight in the middle of his flying lap.

Both Bassani and Razgatlioglu were seemingly unaware that Bulega was closing from behind, and both stayed on the racing line, which resulted in Bulega abandoning his lap.

Speaking after the session in his TV interview in parc ferme, Bulega – who had been visibly furious on the bike during the incident – was very brief in his assessment of the session.

“A bit of traffic, but anyway I have a good feeling with the bike so P2 is still okay,” he said.

“I will try to do my best in the race.”

Razgatlioglu didn’t address the Bulega incident at all when speaking in his own post-session TV interview in parc ferme, and may not have even been aware of it, since the evidence of the drama was happening behind him.

He did, though, again point out the difficulties he’s having riding the BMW this weekend, on which point it is perhaps notable that the only other BMW rider out there, Michael van der Mark, was 13th in Superpole.

“This weekend my biggest target was starting on the front row, [and] finally we did it,” said Razgatlioglu.

“This year, this track, for me it’s not easy to ride the BMW here especially this year. But we keep fighting and every session we keep improving the bike step-by-step.

“We will see in the race; the race is 21 laps, it’s a long race, and everyone is very strong, especially the pace. I will try my best like Portimao.”

WorldSBK Race 1 in Assen will take place later on Saturday at 14:00 local time in Assen, with Sam Lowes starting from his first ever World Superbike pole position.