Winner of the first race of the season World SBK at Phillip Island, Nicholas Bulega left Australia in 2nd place in the general classification, 9 points behind an even more consistent Alex Lowes on the fast and flowing southern track.
The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati rider then followed up with a very successful weekend in Catalonia, without a victory but twice 2nd in the two long races and 4th in the Superpole race, allowing him to take command of the Superbike championship , 12 points ahead of his teammate Álvaro Bautista.
The Barcelona meeting started well from the Friday for the rookie, Nicolò Bulega obtaining the best time in the combined standings after working on the settings of the Ducati Panigale V4R in FP1 and taking advantage of the afternoon session to test different tire solutions.
“I'm happy because we worked very well today, collecting a lot of data that will be useful tomorrow. We also did a good job with the tires, which allowed us to have clearer ideas. Making the right choice will be essential as tire wear is likely to be one of the determining factors in the race. »
Le Saturday, 2nd on the grid behind Toprak Razgatlioglu (BMW), Nicholas Bulega took the lead of the race on lap six and built a very large lead, but in the last three laps he had to deal with sudden rear tire degradation and was overtaken by the pole sitter before finishing at second place, which allowed him to regain the lead in the provisional ranking of the World Superbike Championship.
“I can't say I'm very happy because I was first with a big lead until two laps from the end. Unfortunately, in the last part of the race I no longer had any rear grip and that didn't allow me to manage the advantage I had built. On the other hand, this is an important experience that I can use in the future. I learned something today and tomorrow I will try to do better. »
4th in the Superpole race Sunday rear Alvaro Bautista starting from 11th position and author of a very good comeback, number 11 was the author of a very solid second place in Race 2, still behind the reigning world champion.
“We adopted a different strategy today than in race 1 and this choice proved to be a wise one. I'm very happy with what we did this weekend, also because it's a circuit that I like, but not one of my favorites, like for example Assen. We come home with a lot of confidence and a feeling that grows more and more every day.”
And a surgical operation, since the reigning Supersport world champion was operated on yesterday, Thursday, at the Oglio Po hospital (Cremona), by Professor Alessio Pedrazzini, for chronic forearm compartment syndrome during exercise (compartment syndrome) .
This pathology, now very common in the world of motorcycling, has been present since last winter for the Italian and was reinforced during the Australian round. It worsened last weekend in Barcelona, where intense pain threatened to limit the performance of the reigning Supersport World Champion and current Superbike World Championship standings leader.
For this reason, in agreement with the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team, the decision to operate on the right forearm of Nicolò Bulega has been taken.
The rider will now have plenty of time to recover from the operation and put himself in the best condition for the third round of the 2023 WorldSBK season scheduled for April 19-21 at the Assen TT circuit, Netherlands.
