RAZGATLIOGLU FINDS BRAKING PROGRESS IN MOTEGI SPRINT

Toprak Razgatlioglu finished 17th in the Japanese MotoGP sprint at Motegi, but the Pramac Yamaha rider believes he found a useful step despite a difficult 12 laps. He crossed the line more than 38 seconds behind the winner and over 16.5 seconds behind team-mate Jack Miller, who was 16th. A late run through the gravel at Turn 1 added to a race in which braking remained his main problem.

Razgatlioglu said the day had been “strange”. He had struggled with brake locking on Friday, and although the first part of the braking issue improved, he felt the second part had worsened. He described a change in engine braking as he began to lean the bike: “The bike was not stopping.”

That made it difficult to carry speed through corners and then accelerate, he explained. He had qualified with the same problem and said he was losing time “everywhere”. During the sprint, he felt he rode better, but also acknowledged that he was asking too much of the electronics and needed to find a way to ride with fewer errors.

The Turkish rider said Motegi was particularly demanding because he was losing the front at braking points when the bike would not slow as expected. Still, he took encouragement from learning that he could manage the motorcycle under braking. He hopes that understanding will help in Sunday’s longer race, which he called the most important one of the weekend.

Razgatlioglu has been adapting to MotoGP after several years on production-based machinery, and he said his progress had generally come day by day. The sprint, however, did not bring the improvement he had expected. “Normally, today, I need to improve more but I did not improve,” he said. “I just made many mistakes this morning.”

Yamaha’s broader struggles are expected to continue through the end of the season, ahead of the 850cc regulation change in 2027. For Razgatlioglu, the immediate focus is on making the most of the lessons from the sprint and finding a more consistent approach to braking in the main race.