Toprak Razgatlioglu finished fifth in the first race of the Superbike World Championship at Phillip Island. This was the Turkish rider’s debut with ROKiT BMW, having fought for the top positions on a challenging track – he crossed the finish line in fourth, but a 1.225s penalty dropped him to fifth.
The 2021 world champion analyzed the race in an interview with the championship’s official website: ‘The start wasn’t bad. I stayed in front and the feeling was good at the beginning of the race because we did 1m30s and then we started doing 1m29s. But we were riding in the high 1m29s. In the last three laps, I attacked harder and I was still riding with my bike, preserving the rear tire, trying to save it because this track is very demanding on the rear tire – and especially with my bike, I use the rear tire a lot. We did ten laps, but in the last two laps, I was feeling vibrations. Anyway, we finished the race in fifth.’
A pit lane violation resulted in a penalty for Razgatlioglu that prevented him from finishing fourth: ‘I saw 0 on my display, and I immediately exited the pit lane. And also Alex [Lowes] overtook me at the exit of the pit lane. But I didn’t gain any advantage. Anyway, I started in fifth and finished in fifth. Fourth place is better than fifth, I hope we improve for tomorrow,’ he explained.
A pesar de que el resultado fue inferior al deseado, el turco reconoció que no esperaba facilidades: ‘Hicimos una carrera con BMW. No estoy contento con el quinto lugar, mi objetivo era el podio en la primera carrera. Pero nos dimos cuenta, especialmente ayer, de que esta no sería una carrera fácil porque después de diez vueltas este neumático está destrozado. Tal vez especialmente con mi moto uso mucho el neumático trasero, pero parece que es más fácil para las otras motos. De todos modos, tenemos algunos datos de carrera, eso es bueno, estamos comenzando a trabajar para mejorar. Espero que mejoremos mañana y hagamos mejores carreras’.
Cuando se le preguntó si mañana podría tener otra oportunidad de subir al podio, Razgatlioglu respondió: ‘Espero que sí, ese es mi objetivo, el primer podio, especialmente en Australia, porque no es una pista fácil para mí y para BMW. Espero que hagamos un podio mañana’.
