Nicolo Bulega was unable to match his Championship rival in the opening race of the weekend at Estoril.

The penultimate round of the 2025 World Superbike Championship at Estoril is a crucial weekend for Nicolo Bulega if he wants a realistic chance to win the title at Jerez next week.

However, after the opening World Superbike race of the weekend on Saturday, it was first blood to Toprak Razgatlioglu, as he controlled the race from the front.

The Turkish rider grabbed an early lead and started extending his gap over the field, until Bulega started to hunt him down and close the gap from second to first.

However, in the last five laps, Bulega experienced a lot of tyre drop on the front of his Ducati Panigale V4 R, and ended up settling for second place in Race One.

"Not a bad result but it’s not enough," Nicolo Bulega told WorldSBK.com after Race One in Estoril.

"I tried everything, but honestly, Toprak [Razgatlioglu] here is very strong. Unfortunately, in the first laps, I lost a bit of time, and then Toprak was gone already.

"Then, to try to recover him, I was nearly catching him, but in the last five laps I felt too much the drop in the front tyre.

"The risk was very high to crash, so I preferred to take second."

Bulega admitted he started to believe he could win when he was catching Razgatlioglu, but was unable to overcome his front tyre wear, and had to settle for second.

"When I was catching him, I started to think ‘You can do it’," the Italian said.

"But from the 15th or 16th lap I feel a very big drop on the front tyre and then I had to save more tyres for the last laps."