Sunday was a day to forget for Nicolo Bulega as he missed out on two podiums due to two mechanical issues.

It was a near-perfect Saturday for Nicolo Bulega at the Dutch World Superbike Round. The Italian rider qualified in second and dominated the opening race of the weekend.

However, his weekend completely changed on Sunday when he encountered two technical issues in the Superpole Race and Race Two.

In the Superpole Race, while he was sitting in second place, his bike stopped, causing him to retire from the race. The same thing occurred for Bulega later in the day when he was leading in Race Two by over two seconds.

Luckily for Bulega, his title rival, Toprak Razgatliogliu, also had a difficult weekend. Despite the Turkish rider winning the Superpole Race, he only managed to finish eighth in Race Two.

This means that across the weekend, Bulega suffered an eight-point hit to his Championship lead over Razgatlioglu.

"Honestly, I don’t know what to say," Bulega told WorldSBK.com after his second DNF of the day in Race Two at Assen.

"We had a problem this morning when I was second and then third.

"Then, I started again, I had a very good race. I was first with a margin and, with two laps to go, my bike turned off again – like this morning.

"I don’t know what to say. They’re checking what the problem is but, for me, it was very similar to the Superpole Race."

The next World Superbike Round is not until the first weekend of May (02/03/04), when the paddock travels to Cremona for the Italian round.

Last year, Bulega finished in second and third in Race One and Two, and fourth in the Superpole Race. But Razgatlioglu did not compete at the track due to injury.

"I will try to do my best like always to recover points," he said, looking toward the Italian Round.

"Now, I’m just thinking what I lost today which was a lot. I will try to recover next time."