RAZGATLIOGLU REPORTS UNUSUAL TYRE DEGRADATION AFTER SETUP CHANGE IN SILVERSTONE

Toprak Razgatlioglu’s MotoGP weekend at Silverstone turned into a puzzle after he struggled with what he described as abnormal tyre degradation during the race. The Pramac Yamaha rider, who is used to the Superbike World Championship’s calendar but has limited MotoGP track time—Silverstone being only the second venue he’s visited in the 2018–2025 period, with the series previously stopping at Donington Park—found the learning curve steep from the start.

In Friday practice, Razgatlioglu ended up 23rd and last in FP1, though he improved through the sessions. Still, qualifying proved difficult: he could only manage 1:58.590, finishing 22nd, and missed the Q2 cut by 1.2 seconds. In the sprint, he crossed the line 20th, benefiting from retirements ahead of him as Raul Fernandez (Aprilia), Cal Crutchlow (Honda) and Iker Lecuona (Ducati) failed to finish.

The biggest concern came in the race itself. Razgatlioglu lost 34 seconds to winner Jorge Martin (Aprilia), and he said the size of the gap couldn’t be explained by lack of circuit knowledge alone. He pointed to problems with the bike’s behaviour at the start of the stint and, crucially, to the tyre’s rapid drop-off.

“I'm a bit surprised—at the beginning it wasn't going too badly. However, I had some problems with the turning, because for the race we used a different setup. I felt immediately that I didn’t like it,” Razgatlioglu said. “That the tyre would wear out so quickly, I didn’t expect. It was very strange. In the morning we tried a softer tyre and I had plenty of spinning, but it wasn’t comparable to the feeling in the race.”

He added that the situation worsened lap by lap. “It got worse with every lap,” he said.

Razgatlioglu also compared his experience to what he saw elsewhere on the grid. Marc Márquez (Ducati) finished ninth after a similar pattern, and Razgatlioglu explained that his own race deteriorated after an initial period that felt manageable. “After two laps it started and that was okay for me, because I expected it. But then, four laps later, it was over,” he said. “I could hardly turn in anymore, I almost lost the rear end multiple times and I couldn’t get the bike into lean. In my last lap I was only doing a 2:04. It got worse every lap. Everyone had to deal with tyre drop-off, but for me it wasn’t normal.”

He suggested that without the issue he might have challenged for a higher position, adding that anything beyond that would likely have been the ceiling. “Without these problems, maybe I could have finished behind Alex, but that would have been the maximum,” he said. “I still haven’t understood how it could happen. With my crew chief, we analysed the data.”

After five laps, Razgatlioglu still had Pol Espargaro (KTM), Augusto Fernández (Yamaha) and Cal Crutchlow (Honda) behind him, underlining how quickly the race turned.

Looking ahead to Sunday, he said he hopes to find a second chance by adjusting both setup and his approach. “We’ll see if we can find something for Sunday. Our setup isn’t right yet,” Razgatlioglu said. “I’ll also look at the data from Jack and Fabio. They’re faster in the corners and I’m trying to do the same, but I can’t find the setup and I can’t even get into the rhythm. My riding style is different, but I’m working on it.”

Razgatlioglu’s comments were echoed in the sprint aftermath too, where he described the rear tyre drop as “really strange.” He said the start of the sprint was not too bad, but that he struggled with turning because the race setup had been different, and he was “not expecting this tyre drop.” He explained that with a new tyre he could feel spinning after three or four laps, but that later the degradation became dramatic: “after four or five laps later, the tyres drop incredibly,” leaving him “not able to enter the corner” because he lost the rear and “not able to lean.” He added that his last lap was “2m04s,” and that while everyone drops, “my one is not normal.”

On the other side of the Pramac Yamaha garage, Jack Miller’s tyre choice proved more effective. Miller opted for the medium rear tyre and finished 13th, almost 20 seconds ahead of Razgatlioglu. Miller said the medium was “the correct decision,” explaining that soft rears he tried earlier in the weekend “have looked like shit, felt like shit,” and that by the end he “couldn’t lean anymore.” He said he was confident in the decision despite expecting difficulty at the start, and that he was able to “come back through” by the end of the sprint.