Tulovic has some Nürburgring homework to do – title decider postponed

Despite his best efforts, Lukas Tulovic was unable to secure pole position at the Euro Moto weekend at the Nürburgring. As had been the case recently at Assen, the Ducati rider started the race from second place. Twan Smits had held on to the fastest time. Although things had been rather difficult for Tulovic during the extra practice session on Thursday, he was nevertheless satisfied with the progress he’d made by Saturday afternoon. “We had a tough start to the weekend,” he explained after the final practice session. “At the start, the bike’s set-up wasn’t good at all. But we managed to sort it out really well in the end. It was significantly faster than last year, but Twan then went one better. I have to say, hats off to him for what he pulled off.”

Two third-place finishes aren’t enough

However, this did nothing to dampen Tulovic’s hunger for victory. That said, Smits wasn’t really the main rival in this case. Because to clinch the title early, there was a completely different contender on Tulovic’s list. “We want to win the championship title, and to do that I don’t have to beat Twan, but Marcel Schrötter.” The Bavarian, however, thwarted the Ducati rider’s hopes of an early title win by finishing ahead of the defending champion in both races, thereby postponing the decision until the finale at the Hockenheimring.

Even on Sunday, Marcel Schrötter was unable to challenge Twan Smits’ two victories. Yet on both occasions, Schrötter managed to finish second, relegating Tulovic and his title ambitions to third place. “I was a bit surprised that Marcel was able to keep up with Twan throughout the race. I’d hoped I could do the same; it went quite well at the start. Marcel and I had a bit of a battle there, which naturally held us up and played into Twan’s hands. By the middle of the race, however, I was struggling and unfortunately couldn’t keep up.”

Pushed to the limit

For the second race, Tulovic wanted to come up with a plan to turn the chase for victory into a three-way battle. But the scenario was much the same as that morning, and once again Smits proved unstoppable.

In the battle for the podium, Tulovic found himself up against not only Marcel Schrötter but also a fiercely determined Markus Reiterberger on the tail of his Ducati. Schrötter launched his attack at the entrance to the final corner in the Mercedes Arena. It paid off. Reiterberger had run out of steam. For the Ducati rider, it was third place for the second time at the Nürburgring. “I left nothing on the track today,” he assured everyone afterwards. “I was at the limit on every lap and in every corner. Whether the front wheel was hopping or locking up. Or skidded sideways under acceleration. I lost time to Twan and Marcel in lots of places. I really battled, but there was nothing more I could do. Still, it’s a solid haul of points – we have to be satisfied with that. Now we’ve got a bit of time left to do our homework before Hockenheim.”

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