“No pressure” for Nicolo Bulega in WorldSBK title fight despite Toprak Razgatlioglu absence

Nicolo Bulega has the chance to take the World Superbike points lead at the Italian WorldSBK this weekend, but that is not providing any additional pressure, he insists.

Bulega has a 55-point deficit to Toprak Razgatlioglu in the riders’ standings after eight rounds, but the Turkish rider is absent from the Italian Round this weekend as he continues to recover from injuries he sustained in practice at the French Round two weeks ago.

The situation, both in terms of the points and the absence of the championship leader, was not increasing the pressure on the Italian, he said.

“I honestly don’t think about the championship now,” Bulega told WorldSBK.com. “I just want to go race by race, and try to fight for the podium every race. Then, the last race of the season, we will see.

“No pressure because it’s just my job. I have to do my job like always. It’s just motorbike racing, so no pressure.”

Perhaps, rather than the championship battle, the biggest concern for Bulega after Friday in Cremona was his feeling on-track.

“Honestly, today I didn’t have a very good feeling,” he said.

“I think my riding style is not so good for this circuit. So, I have to adapt, I have to do something different than usual in this track, we have to work a lot because I have to ride over some problems.

“I hope tomorrow to enter [the track] and have a better feeling from the beginning.”

Expanding more on the “problems” he is having to ride around, Bulega implied that a part of his problem is his own physical condition, after suffering right shoulder injuries in his Race 1 crash at Magny-Cours.

“In general I didn’t feel [very] comfortable on the bike,” he said. “[It was] difficult to push like I want, so I’m still at 80 per cent and I cannot ride like I want. So, we have to work, because we have the potential to be much faster.”