Nicolo Bulega was unable to recover from a late tyre call which left the Italian in difficulty during Race 1 of the Dutch WorldSBK round at Assen.

The series leader has seen his gap reduce to just one po𝓀int over the formidable duo of Alvaro Bautista and Toprak Razgatlioglu.

• Toprak Razgatlioglu anal♏yses Nichol꧂as Spinelli’s tyre gamble in WSBK Assen Race 1 

• Jonathan Rea’s first Yamaha pol⛎e position: “I felt at one with the bike”

Prior to the🔯 race gettin▨g started heavy rain fell which had also been the case before FP3 and Superpole.

And although he made the same tyre call as the majority of the grid, Bulega, who started from se✤cond on the grid, claimed the decision to run slick tyres was too late as he rode the entire race with a wet setting on the bike.

Bulega said: “Unfortunately we made a mistake. 🍸We decided too late to put on the slick tyre and I rode with the ꦚwet setting in dry conditions.

“It was a bit difficult to manage the situation. Also, tಌhe first laps I was a bit scared to understand the bike because it was my first time in this situation.

“﷽It was a bit difficult. But we have to forget today and we will try again tomorrow.”

Another Ducati rider who made the same tyre call as Buleg✤a was Sam Lowes, who started from P4.

However, the Superbike rookie saw his cha💛nces of a good result end൲ on lap one after pitting for intermediate tyres.

“Sorry to the team because we probably made the correct call with the tyres, but the choice was a bit of a lottery,” s𒐪aid Lowes. 

“I was really happy to qualify fourth and be in the mix but on the first l🦹ap the first sector was pretty wet and I saw the rain comin🔴g down.

“Then I lo༺st the rear in Turn 7 which knocked my confidence a bit so I came in to change tyres. It was the first lap so the timing was difficult and then we unfortunately ꧑had the wrong tyre after that.

“It was frustrating for everybody. I didn’t h🐠ave what I needed to keep going 🔜in the first laps. That’s not on anyone else but me. 

“But it was a very complicated situation in complicated conditions. I’ll learn from that tonight and see what the track’s like🍰 tomorrow. 🥃It was still a positive day in a lot of ways. 

“I just need a bit more confidence and understanding of the tyres to 🧔really be in a better situati🍬on.

“It was my mistake to come in and pit early but it was one of those moments that would have looked🏅 great if it paid off. We’ll try to make a better call tomorrow.”