Last-minute changes are to blame for Nicolo Bulega's lack of feeling during Race One at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli.

Nicolo Bulega was the favourite for victory in the opening race of the weekend at the Emilia-Romagna World Superbike Round.

The Italian had claimed pole position, but was pushed back to fourth on the grid due to a three-place grid penalty. Despite the penalty, Bulega quickly took the lead after Toprak Razgatlioglu ran wide and Axel Bassani crashed.

But Bulega was unable to match Razgatlioglu in the latter laps of the race as he went on to beat the Ducati rider by over a second.

"Honestly, we changed something on the bike," Bulega told TNT Sports after Race One at the Emilia-Romagna World Superbike Round.

"But my feeling was not so good, unfortunately, with the hot track temperatures, my feeling with the bike changed a little bit.

"We have to go back maybe, we also had other small problems during the race. Anyway, I hope we can fix both issues for tomorrow and improve."

A big decision that Bulega took for Race One was to use the harder SC2 front tyre, whereas Razgatlioglu used the SC1 front tyre.

The 25-year-old believed that his decision to use the harder tyre helped in some areas, but also held him back in other areas.

"Honestly, in some areas the harder tyre was a bit better," he explained.

"But in other areas, it was not good, so we have to check for tomorrow."