Nicolo Bulega delivers judgement on Marc Marquez incident in Misano

Nicolo Bulega has provided his reaction to the Marc Marquez incident at Misano - and has stuck up for his rival.

Bulega was sent flying into the gravel, where he protested, by a bold Marquez manoeuvre at the final corner of the Race of Champions last month.

It was supposedly a showpiece event for World Ducati Week where 15 riders from MotoGP, World Superbikes and British Superbikes rode the new Panigale V4.

But after the inclusion of Marquez, the incident he was a part of was eyebrow-raising.

“I don’t want to feed further controversy, since in my opinion there has been too much of it,” Bulega told GPOne.

“On Saturday night after the race, Marc came looking for me in the box, but I had already gone home after being in the medical centre.

“Afterwards he wrote me a message apologising and saying that unfortunately he screwed up.

“For me the matter was already closed and over there.

“In fact, now I’ll be the journalist and ask you; do you think if an eight-time world champion thinks he didn’t make any mistake, he would have given me his helmet?

“I think that the helmet is the answer.”

Marquez admitted: “I tried something there that I'm used to doing with the MotoGP bike but in the moment I didn't understand that I was riding a street bike.

"Even if it's a really good bike, the reaction of the bike I didn't expect and couldn't stop well. It was a mistake.”

Bulega had previously detailed his condition after a trip to hospital.

“I have not found any serious damage to my shoulder, only a contusion to the acromion joint, so I will have to do therapy and rehabilitation.”

That will be put to the test this weekend, when WSBK returns with its Portuguese round.