Dominant Bulega claimed Race 1 win at Assen as Schroetter takes maiden podium

April 22, 2023

It was pole position and race win for Nicolo Bulega as he took his third victory of the season finishing 4.017s ahead of Schroetter.

Marcel Schroetter took his first podium in his third round in WorldSSP with second place. Local hero Glenn van Straalen claimed third place in Race 1 for his home round.

Three different manufacturers stood on the FIM Supersport World Championship podium in Race 1 at the TT Circuit Assen for the Pirelli Dutch Round as Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team) claimed victory by more than four seconds ahead of his rivals.

Bulega started the race from pole position but initially lost out to Federico Caricasulo (Althea Racing Team) as the lights went out for the 18-lap race, but he was able to respond on Lap 1 to re-claim the lead. He was under early pressure from Can Oncu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing), who quickly recovered from contact with Glenn van Straalen (EAB Racing Team) at the start, to move into second place where he could put pressure on Bulega.

Bulega resisted his pressure before starting to pull a gap to Oncu while the Turkish rider dropped into the clutches of home hero van Straalen, with the Dutch rider opting to use the SCX tyre while Oncu used the harder SC0 tyre. The Dutch rider closed in by a second on Oncu on Lap 12 before making the move on Oncu at Turn 5 on Lap 13. Van Straalen was able to then pull a gap to Oncu who had to focus on defending from the chasing pack, eventually dropping behind Marcel Schroetter (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) who passed him on Lap 16 for third place.

Van Straalen was ahead of the group but foundhimself under late pressure from rookie Schroetter who made the move on the final lap through the final sector to deny van Straalen second place, while claiming his first podium in WorldSSP with van Straalen settling for third in home soil; only 0.107s behind Schroetter and he also had the exact same margin over Valentin Debise (GMT94 Yamaha) who missed out on his maiden WorldSSP podium.

Fifth place went to Stefano Manzi (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) at the end of the race with the Italian consistently in the group fighting for the podium and he was only 0.152s behind Debise after 18 laps. Caricasulo took sixth place after running at the front the early stages of the race while Turkish star Oncu dropped down to seventh at the end of the race; more than one second behind Caricasulo but also with a similar margin to the riders behind.

WorldSSP action resumes on Sunday from 09:25 (Local Time) with the Warm-Up, followed by Race 2 at 12:30.

WorldSSP Race 1 Results
1. Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team)
2. Marcel Schroetter (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) +4.017s
3. Glenn van Straalen (EAB Racing Team) +4.124s
4. Valentin Debise (GMT94 Yamaha) +4.231s
5. Stefano Manzi (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) +4.383s
6. Federico Caricasulo (Althea Racing Team) +4.655s

WorldSSP Championship standings
1. Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team) 102 points
2. Stefano Manzi (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) 70 points
3. Marcel Schroetter (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) 66 points

WorldSSP Tissot Superpole Results
1. Nicolo Bulega | Ducati | 1’36.900s
2. Federico Caricasulo | Ducati | +0.203s
3. Glenn van Straalen | Yamaha | +0.688s

P1 | Nicolo Bulega | Aruba Racing WorldSSP Team
“Until now it is a perfect weekend because we started very well yesterday, and also, we were very good today. Pole position this morning, new lap record and victory in the first race… It’s a perfect day for us. Thanks to the team because they did an incredible job this weekend. I’m very happy and we will try again tomorrow. I hope it will be dry because today it was fast, and we are we are sure that I’m fast and, but I also like rain conditions, so we have to be ready for both conditions.”