Nicolo Bulega suffers “problem with my eyes” in UK WorldSBK Race 1

Nicolo Bulega says that he suffered a “problem with my eyes” in Race 1 at the UK WorldSBK.

Bulega qualified second on Saturday morning but was soon shuffled back to fifth behind the Yamahas of Jonathan Rea and Andrea Locatelli, as well as the Bimota of Alex Lowes.

He lost time fighting with the Yamahas in the first laps, meaning that he was already over two seconds behind eventual winner Toprak Razgatlioglu by the time he got to second place.

“I lost some time at the beginning, for sure,” Nicolo Bulega said after Race 1 at Donington.

“Then, later, I had also a problem with my eyes. I don’t know if it was the sweat, but it came into my eyes and some turns I was with the eyes closed.

“So, not very nice, riding a bike in Donington with the eyes closed!

“So, I lost some time for the start, then for the problem of my eyes.”

For Bulega, though, even without his issues at the start and then with his eyes, he did not have the pace to fight Razgatlioglu in Race 1.

“But, anyway, Toprak [Razgatlioglu] was faster,” he said.

“We have to improve. I think I’m using 100 per cent of my bike every time, I always try to be the first Ducati and give some gap to the second Ducati – if you see qualifying and also the race.

“But, when Toprak and BMW are at 100 per cent, sometimes it’s not enough.”

Explaining the difference between Friday, when Bulega had comparable pace with Razgatlioglu, and Saturday when he was clearly beaten, Bulega said: “For me, my explanation is that Toprak [Razgatlioglu] was struggling a little bit with maybe the setting or his feeling [on Friday].

“Today, they improved and we stayed at the same level as yesterday.

“So, yesterday maybe we were similar, maybe me one- or two-tenths better, but today he and BMW improved a lot. Maybe it was this.”

Bulega noted that he felt some difference at Donington with the additional 0.5kg/h of fuel flow reduction introduced for Ducati (and BMW) by World Superbike this weekend.

“For sure our bike is not the same,” Bulega said.

“Okay, the strong point of Ducati is the engine, but maybe it’s not very gentle to ride, especially in slow corners – it’s not the Ducati strong point.

“If you see the last sector, I lose a lot because we have to start from very low speed and it’s not the strongest point of our bike.

“So, I tried, but also at the beginning with the two Yamahas it was very difficult because in the first metres they were faster than me and then I recovered, and also maybe my tyre choice today was not the best.”`