RAZGATLIOGLU CALLS AUSTRIAN GP HIS SECOND-WORST RACE AFTER YAMAHA RESPECT KEPT HIM RIDING

Toprak Razgatlioglu described a miserable Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring as the “second-worst race of my life,” blaming a lack of traction that left him questioning how he could even make it to the finish.

For Yamaha, the weekend proved difficult from the outset. Fabio Quartararo stood out with a ninth-place qualifying result, but on Sunday the brand struggled to convert that promise into points. Quartararo ultimately finished 17th, while the rest of the Yamaha riders were left further behind.

Razgatlioglu, riding for Pramac, endured a race that he said never truly came together. He finished second-to-last, more than 46 seconds off the lead and around 12 seconds behind Alex Rins ahead of him. His teammate Jack Miller was even further back, almost 70 seconds from the winner.

Speaking after the race, Razgatlioglu said the problem began immediately. “I am also very shocked, because the beginning, the first five laps, already I’m not feeling the grip,” he explained. He added that the sensation was not just poor performance but a complete absence of traction, saying, “I feel just spin.”

The Turkish rider said he was frustrated by the mismatch between what he expected from a fresh tyre and what he experienced on track. “I’m really angry on the bike because I just asked to myself, ‘It’s a new tyre, but how is it possible there’s no grip at the beginning?’”

Razgatlioglu also pointed to how the situation evolved during the race. He noted that Quartararo had been riding well at one stage, but that the tyres eventually dropped off. “I saw Fabio was riding very well, but in the end the tyres dropped. But we expect this,” he said.

In his view, the core issue was that without grip, the bike could not deliver the acceleration he needed. “But today we struggled more: if bike has no grip, we have no acceleration.”

As the laps went on, Razgatlioglu’s confidence in the possibility of finishing faded. “In the end, the last six laps, I asked myself, ‘How is it possible to finish the race?’, because on the straight it was just spinning.” He described the same pattern repeating lap after lap: “From the exit of the first corner, when I pick up the bike I just spin. Everywhere, I just felt spin in the last six laps.”

He compared the experience to another difficult Yamaha-related race earlier in the season, saying the Austrian result mirrored what he had felt before. “This was the second-worst race of my life, [the other] was also this year. One was in Thailand. I felt the same this, with no grip. Here, it’s the same [tyre], so it’s very strange. Yesterday we could manage. But, today, I’m not expecting this.”

Despite the severity of the problem, Razgatlioglu said he did not withdraw. He admitted that he considered coming into the pits, but chose to continue because of his respect for Yamaha and the effort required to keep riding when the pace is gone. “I was thinking sometimes to come into the box. But I respect Yamaha enough to continue to ride, because the pace was a disaster.”

He summed up the emotional side of the race as well as the performance side, saying he tried to complete the distance even though it was not enjoyable. “I just tried to finish the race, but I was enjoying it zero. I think all of the Yamahas were the same.”