Toprak Razgatlioglu: Nicolo Bulega “very strong” at Italian WorldSBK, but fighting him possible
Toprak Razgatlioglu says he needs “a little bit more” from his BMW to be able to fight Nicolo Bulega at the Italian WorldSBK.
At the fourth round of the 2025 WorldSBK season, Toprak Razgatlioglu is again wary of the pace of Nicolo Bulega, describing the Italian as “very strong” after the opening day of practice at Cremona Circuit.
Razgatlioglu finished second to Bulega in FP2, 0.215 seconds slower than the Italian’s best effort in the afternoon session.
The Turkish rider and his BMW team arrived at the Italian venue having been out-paced by Bulega throughout the Dutch World Superbike round at Assen, in dry conditions at least, although he was able to close down his points deficit to 20 thanks to technical issues for Bulega in the Superpole Race and Race 2.
At Cremona, a circuit Razgatlioglu didn’t race at last year due to injury, it’s again Bulega who has Razgatlioglu’s attention.
“Nicolo [Bulega] now is very strong,” Razgatlioglu told WorldSBK.com after FP2 in Cremona, “and also he knows the track because he rode here last year.
“Also, Ducati is improving a lot; this year it looks like he’s riding more easy and the bike is working very well.
“But last year I didn’t ride, because of the big crash [at Magny-Cours] and I only watched on the TV. Now, for me, everything is new, especially in the hot conditions the bike is not really good.
“If tomorrow we improve the bike a little bit more, I think maybe we are fighting in the race with Nicolo.”
Having missed last year’s race at Cremona through the injuries sustained in the aforementioned “big crash” at Magny-Cours, Razgatlioglu is theoretically on the back foot compared to most of his rivals at the Italian venue.
However, the Turkish rider says that he already knows the track, it’s the way the bike is reacting that he’s having to understand.
“Last year did only one, one-day test here, I did maybe 35 laps maximum,” he said.
“Already I know the track, but I don’t know the bike reaction because in hot conditions I’ve never ridden here.
“Also, last year and this year is completely different because I’m not riding really the same bike like last year, and for me this is very hard because every race weekend we are working more than before; and for me also really hard are all the races, especially Assen.
“But I hope this weekend I will do my best again and I hope we finish on the podium.”
Alex joined the Crash.net team in August of 2024 having covered consumer and racing motorcycle news at Visordown for two years.
