Nicolo Bulega: ‘I would have signed for second place behind Toprak two months ago’

Nicolo Bulega led much of the race as he stretched clear from the likes of Andrea Iannone and Toprak Razgatlioglu.

Bulega inherited the lead a few laps in when fellow rookie Sam Lowes crashed out, which began a series of very fast laps from the Italian.

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But despite being in control for much of the race, Bulega eventually ran into tyre wear issues and began shedding time to Razgatlioglu.

After being caught on the penultimate lap, Bulega lost the lead at turn five before finishing just under a second down on the BMW rider.

“Honestly, I didn’t have a strategy,” said Bulega. “It was my first long race because in Australia we did a pit stop.

“In the end, unfortunately my rear tyre was completely dead. It was difficult for me to manage and Toprak was very fast in the end.

“His tyre life was a bit better than mine. Maybe I pushed a little bit too much at the beginning to overtake them because I was very fast.

“Today, I think I learned something. I will be more prepared next time.”

Bulega made a good start to Race 1, something he struggled to do throughout the season-opener.

However, Bulega was still pushed down order after being overtaken by Iannone and Lowes at the first corner.

Admitting he could be more aggressive, Bulega said: “The start was good because I improved a lot from Australia.

“Then, in the first corner; I don’t remember who it was - maybe Lowes - entered very aggressively and I lost some positions.

“I’m happy because I improved the start but maybe I can be a bit more aggressive in the first few corners.”

Asked when he began suffering with his rear tyre, Bulega said he could do nothing to stop the gap to Razgatlioglu from dropping with three laps remaining.  

Bulega added: “Three laps to go. My pit board guy gave me the seconds and I saw 3, 2, 1 but it was not enough to win the race.

“I’m happy because I’m a rookie and I’m only at my second round.

“If you asked me two months ago I would sign for a second place behind Toprak on the last lap.

“So it is a nice first two races for me and it’s more experience.”