Sbk, Razgatlioglu stretches but Nicolo Bulega has no intention of giving up

With a race-1 conducted to the finish line with personality at the Estoril circuit, Toprak Razgatlioglu (BMW) won the first act of the Portuguese Round of the World Superbike Championship, moving up in the championship standings to +41 on his closest pursuer, Ducati rider Nicolò Bulega. The latter, second across the line in the first race of the weekend, certainly has no intention of giving up.

“Second place is not a bad result, but it is not enough – said Bulega at the end of the day in Estoril -. I tried everything, but honestly Toprak was really strong today. In the first lap I lost some time and he had already escaped. I tried to recover and had the feeling I could catch him, but in the last five laps I felt a major drop on the front and the risk of crashing was high, so I preferred to settle for second place. We will try again tomorrow”.

Completely satisfied, of course, Razgatlioglu: “At the beginning of the race everything was under control, but in the middle Nicolo had a little more grip than me. At the end the tires were slipping a little bit’ but it was the same for him. I am really happy to have finished race-1 in first position. Tomorrow we have two more tough races ahead of us, and I will give it my all again”.

The Superbike World Championship standings see Razgatlioglu in the lead with 548 points, while Bulega is chasing at 507 and is the only one who from an arithmetic point of view can still catch and overtake him between now and the end of the championship (after the Portuguese Round, there will be the ’last round of the season in Jerez): the first of the “others” is Danilo Petrucci, third in the standings with 284 points. The rider from Terni, among other things, is absent in Portugal due to a hand injury suffered during a gym workout.