The dream debut
Pole position and victory on debut overall in Superbike, two other second place finishes and races never finished outside the top-5. Results rewarded with the leadership of the world championship ranking after two rounds held and with a 22 point advantage over his Ducati teammate Alvaro Bautista, the reigning two-time world champion. Nicolò Bulega's adventure in Superbike began with leading numbers, indicated even before his debut as one of the most promising talents after the Supersport title won hands down last year.
The most beautiful moment
Next weekend's challenge now arrives at Assen for the 24-year-old from Emilia.'University of two wheels'in a particularly positive moment of his career after the negative experience of the MotoGP: “I think this is the best moment of my career since I'm in a great team – he declared in an interview for the official Superbike website – I feel good on the bike and I feel I can be competitive; for a pilot, this is very important. They took me from Moto2 when I was in a difficult moment. I no longer enjoyed running but they believed in me and gave me a second chance. They gave me a really good package and bike and always believed in me, trying to give me the perfect bike every weekend. Two years ago it was very important for me to join this team. We are growing together. I found a great team, next year I will stay here. I don't know if I will fight for the Championship but I will try to stay at the front and then we'll see. I always say that the pressure is there when you're in bad shape, as I was two years ago. When you're in a good team, you have a good bike and the results come, you don't feel the pressure”.
A champion as a teammate
Fresh from a victory on his debut in Australia, Bulega regained two more podiums in Barcelona, finishing behind his teammate Alvaro Bautista in Race 2. A relationship between him and the Spanish driver, which the #11 commented on with these words: “When you arrive in a new category and you have the world champion as a teammate, that's always the first one a rider wants to beat, but this isn't my case – he added – Alvaro is a great person. Our situation is very different. I'm happy to share the box with him as it is very fast. I like this given that you want to do more. It's nice to have a two-time world champion on the team. What happened at Phillip Island changed nothing. I only won one race, Alvaro is a two-time world champion, so I have to learn a lot from him.”
The next goals
The good results and the presence of Bautista in the team, however, do not generate pressure on Bulega, whose main objective remains to gain more and more experience: “I've already won one race and so I'd like to win more – he concluded – it's still too early to understand what I'll be able to do between now and the end of the season. I would like to be at the front in many races and try to get on the podium. I want to enjoy every race. I have no pressure since it's my first year. I simply have to learn. If I don't manage to win like I did in Australia, no problem since it's my first year.”
#Bulega #fast #teammate
