Nicolo Bulega narrowly missed out on three Portimao WorldSBK wins to Toprak Razgatlioglu but insisted he has “nothing to complain about.”
Both Bulega and Razgatlioglu produced enticing battles across all three races, but Bulega finished second fiddle on each occasion, with only 0.317s separating the pair across all three races.
Bulega extended his lead to 29 points, with reigning champion Razgatlioglu moving to second after a tough season opener at Phillip Island.
“Toprak [Razgatlioglu] is usually clean and doesn’t make bad overtakes, maybe here I caused trouble for him and made him go out of his comfort zone, so they were a bit more on the limit,” he reflected to GPOne.
“In any case, I’m happy because it means he didn’t have that much margin [in front].
“After the initial manoeuvre I suffered I tried to react since he sent me wide and lost tenths. I tried to get him back and almost made it however I was too on the limit. Even 1% more would have made me fall.
“Personally, I have nothing to complain about this weekend, so even though I finished second I go to bed calmly knowing that I did everything I could in every corner.”
Bulega has no ‘realistic picture’ on BMWs overall package yet
Despite Razgatlioglu’s treble success, Bulega has yet to see the true potential of the BMWs overall package.
The Italian is unsure of BMWs competitiveness for the forthcoming rounds, with his Turkish rival at the front and his team-mate Michael van der Mark producing less competitive results.
“Honestly I feel good with my bike, however, if there are some points where we are well placed, in others we lose,” he began.
“It’s true that Toprak is strong, but he’s on a BMW and there are two on the track, one of which, with all due respect to [Michael] van der Mark, is more competitive, so we don’t have a realistic picture of how the M1000RR would perform if there was another top rider.”
“The Turk is certainly competitive and I tried this weekend until the end. I even risked going down on the ground two or three times to try to fool him.
“They would have to limit us, Razgatlioglu would win hands down and instead, for example, here in Portimao we experienced three good and hard-fought races.
“As said, it is impossible to make a real comparison because only Toprak is doing well with the BMW, however, there are two on the grid. It’s just random talk.”
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