Nicolo Bulega “didn’t have a good feeling” in Misano WorldSBK Race 1, disagrees with grid penalty

After being beaten by Toprak Razgatlioglu in WorldSBK Race 1 at Misano, Nicolo Bulega says he needs to find improvements to allow him to exploit his “full potential”.

The Italian led in the opening laps of Race 1 at this weekend’s Emilia-Romagna WorldSBK, but dropped behind Razgatlioglu when he made a mistake at turn nine on lap five.

Although he stayed with Razgatlioglu for the rest of the race, only dropping more than one second behind the reigning World Superbike Champion on the final lap, Nicolo Bulega said afterwards that he did not have the feeling he wanted from his Panigale V4 R.

“Honestly, I didn’t have a very good feeling with my bike,” Bulega told WorldSBK.com after Race 1 in Misano.

“We have to change something for tomorrow because with this hot track temperature my feeling was not at 100 per cent – was at 90 [per cent].

“To stay and battle with Toprak [Razgatlioglu] you have to be always at 100 per cent, 90 is not enough.

“So, I will try, with my team, to improve my feeling a little bit for tomorrow.”

He added: “Honestly, my riding style is good when I have to make corner speed, I’m really fast.

“But in the race today I was not able to use my full potential. We have to improve this part for tomorrow.”

Bulega set a new lap record in Superpole but started fourth after being judged – along with Andrea Iannone – to have impeded Danilo Petrucci, the penalty for which was a three-position grid drop for Race 1.

“I don’t agree with the penalty because after turn 10 I looked back and saw Petrucci coming, so I started to push again to not disturb him,” Bulega explained.

“Then, in the last sector, I looked behind and saw I had some space to Danilo [Petrucci].

“So, I didn’t do [anything] wrong with him.

“Iannone was behind me and he was closer to Danilo, so I think a penalty is correct for Iannone but not for me because I was much more in front.

“If you [take out] Iannone and you see our position with me and Danilo there was a lot of space. So, I don’t agree with the penalty.

“But anyway I tried to explain to them– also Danilo said to me that he was not angry with me.”

Bulega will take his position on pole for tomorrow’s Superpole Race, which will decide the grid positions for Race 2.