Jonathan Rea blasts “silly” Nicolo Bulega after Estoril WorldSBK Race 1 battle

Jonathan Rea has branded Nicolo Bulega as “silly” after their battle in Estoril WorldSBK Race 1.

Rea and Bulega battled early in Race 1, with the major flashpoint between the two coming on lap three when Bulega ran wide at turn one, opening the door for Rea to try to pass him at turn two, and the Italian ended up running off-track on the exit of the second corner.

“It was very hard to fight with him [Jonathan Rea] today,” Bulega told WorldSBK.com after Race 1 in Estoril, “because if you overtake him, the next corner for sure he will try to overtake you again.

“At turn two, he was a bit aggressive and pushed me outside [the track], and I lose a lot of positions. I said ‘Okay, you have to stay calm, try to recover’.”

Bulega did recover to second place, and showed good speed to come back from eighth. He said it was “fun to recover and make some overtakes,” but that it’s “Better to not say what I think when I was in the back.”

Rea had a different perspective on the incident, and didn’t accept any “responsibility”.

“It’s kind of silly for him, on the outside, to tip in over the top of me,” Rea explained to WorldSBK.com.

“So, I don’t accept any responsibility for that, to be fair.

“He went a bit deep in turn one, I got alongside him; going into turn two, he didn’t want to give up, I had right of way.

“I wasn’t going to stop and say ‘go ahead, here you go, mate’.

“I’ll have to see him after about that, because it’s not nice calling me out for that.”