Toprak Razgatlioglu pinpoints cause of “the bike isn’t turning” concern

Despite sunny skies, weather conditions proved a dꦓifficulty for Toprak Razgatlioglu in Race 2 of the Portugue♕se WorldSBK round.

Toprak Razgatlioglu, 2024 Portuguese WorldSBK. - Gold and Goose.
Toprak Razgatlioglu, 2024 Portuguese WorldSBK. - Gold and Goose.
© Gold & Goose

The third WorldSBK race of the weekend saw Toprak Razgatlioglu🍌 seal his third victory of the weekend despite conditions he descri🍸bed as “difficult”.

Razgatlioglu’s win came over Nicolo Buဣlega, after Alvaro Bautista crashed out, and with Alex Lowes in a distant third place for Kawasaki.

Despite yet another WorldSBK success, it was not straightforward for the champions✅hip leader, especialꦛly because of the weather.

“Thi♛s race for me is very difficult and not easy to ride the bike with the strong wind,” Razgatlioglu told WorldSBK.com. “But I’m always fighting, and just the last sector I 🍬know I’m very slow because the bike isn’t turning in the last corner.”

The reason for the lack of tur✤ning was a lack of a left front wing, which Razgatlioglu had lost when🔜 he passed Lowes for the lead.

“On the straight, I don’t understand how I hit Alex but the wing broke on the left.” 𓆉he said. “After, the bike wasn’t turning, especially in the last secto🎀r and in the last corner, I was losing almost 0.5s.”

The BMW rider explained that the area which became his major weakness after he lost the wing was also the major strong point of the bik💦e he w൲as fighting, the Ducati, at Portimao.

“The Ducati is very strong there [in the last sector] and I was really fighting in the last f🐻our or five laps, starting with Alvaro and then Nicolo,” Razgatlioglu said.

“In the last lap, I needed𓃲 to give more than 100 per cent before the final sector so I made a plan and it worked. It’s been an incredible job this weekend and the feeling is unbelievable.”

It was yet another landmark win for Razgatlioglu. On Saturday, his Race 1 win had tied him with Jonathan Rea and Alvaro Bautista for the record of consecutive wins on 11. In the Superpo🌱le Race, he took that record for himself with his 12th straight win, and the Race 2 victory saw him take his 54th win in total.

“This is the 13th win [in a row], and my 5🗹4th in total — this is good and I’m very happy. It’🌳s been a very good weekend for me and for my team, and everyone is working very hard.”

Team principal of the factory BMW team told WorldSBK.com that he thinks Razgaᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚtlioglu can now get even faster, having achieved the record for consecutive wins. “I actually feel a little bit of pressure relieved from Toprak now,” he said, “he could get a bit quicker — di𝐆dn’t think I’d say that!

“Unbelievable. What a performance, from the beꦐginning of the year to where we are now. It’s been unbelievable.”.

Razgatlioglu now leads the standings by 92 points ahead of the aforementioned Bulega, whom he beat by 0.035 seconds in Race 2🍃 at Portimao. The next round, round eight, is at Magny-Cours, the site of Razgatlioglu’s first ever WorldSBK win back in 2019.

“It’s one of my favourite circuits,” Razgatli🗹oglu said, “but whether or not I’m g✱ood there with the BMW, I don’t know.”

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