Estoril WorldSBK Race 1 “not bad but not enough” for Nicolo Bulega
Nicolo Bulega admits his P2 in Race 1 at the Estoril WorldSBK was “not enough”.
Another second place for Nicolo Bulega was “not enough” for him in his battle with Toprak Razgatlioglu for the 2025 WorldSBK title.
After losing another five points to Razgatlioglu, who won his 20th race of the season in Estoril Race 1, Bulega now sits 41 points behind the BMW rider in the World Superbike standings with now 99 remaining this season.
The Italian says he “tried everything” to beat Razgatlioglu, but in his efforts to close him down in the middle of the 20-lap Race 1 he ran out of front tyre life in the closing stages of the race.
“Not a bad result but it’s not enough,” Nicolo Bulega said, speaking to WorldSBK.com a after Race 1 in Estoril.
“I tried everything, but honestly Toprak [Razgatlioglu] here is very strong.
“Unfortunately, the first laps I lost a bit of time and then Toprak was gone already.
“Then, to try to recover him – I was nearly catching him – but the last five laps I feel too much the drop in the front tyre.
“The risk was very high to crash so I preferred to take second.”
Bulega said he started to think he could win when he was catching Razgatlioglu, but was ultimately unable to overcome his front tyre drop.
“When I was catching him I started to think ‘You can do it’,” the Italian said.
“But from the 15th or 16th lap I feel a very big drop on the front tyre and then I had to save more tyres for the last laps.”
Bulega was able to beat Razgatlioglu on the run to the line in the Superpole Race in 2024. His approach to the 2025 edition of the Estoril 10-lapper is to try to repeat that result.
“No strategy, like always,” he said. “Just try to be fast and try to beat Toprak.”
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Alex joined the Crash.net team in August of 2024 having covered consumer and racing motorcycle news at Visordown for two years.
