TOPRAK RAZGATLIOGLU PRAISED AS SILVERSTONE’S STANDOUT AFTER FRUSTRATING BRITISH GP FRIDAY
8 Aug·
Neil Hodgson singled out Pramac rider Toprak Razgatlioglu as the standout performer during practice at the 2026 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, despite a difficult start to the weekend for the Turkish newcomer.
Razgatlioglu’s Friday was far from smooth. After MotoGP returned from the summer break, he struggled to find pace in the opening session, posting only the 23rd-fastest time in FP1. In the pre-qualifying session he improved to P22, and his best lap of the day—set on a 1:58.621—still left him well off the overall pace. The only rider slower than him in pre-qualifying was Yamaha test rider Augusto Fernandez, who finished behind Razgatlioglu on a 1:58.830.
While Razgatlioglu was working to close the gap, his Pramac teammate Jack Miller looked more comfortable. Miller secured a place in Q2 by going P9 with a 1:57.322, and the overall pace in practice was set by Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi, who topped the session with a new Silverstone lap record of 1:56.280. Hodgson noted that Miller was 1.042 seconds off the pace, underlining how much the field was still sorting itself out early in the weekend.
Even with the raw timing not reflecting it, Hodgson said Razgatlioglu’s riding stood out—particularly at one of Silverstone’s defining braking moments into Brooklands. Hodgson highlighted the “aggressive” way the Yamaha YZR-M1 was being slowed for the fast left-hander, describing how Razgatlioglu was the only rider who truly left a visible mark at that corner.
“What’s interesting is I’m right at that key point at the end of the straight where you grab the brake aggressively,” Hodgson said on TNT Sports’ The Inside Line. “I’m watching the weight transfer on the different motorcycles, how these bikes are reacting, and this really sums up Silverstone. We’ve got some long straights into fast corners… It’s being able to monitor the braking zones to gain a yard.”
Hodgson also compared how different machines behave under braking. He said the Aprilia looked “squat at the back,” with “less transfer,” while KTM rider Pedro Acosta’s bike “kicks a lot,” backs in more, and appears harder to stop. Against that backdrop, Hodgson said Razgatlioglu’s approach looked like he was forcing the issue to make time.
“All in all, obviously early on in the race weekend, the riders are still finding things,” Hodgson added. “There’s not really been, I’d say, a standout rider apart from one person – it’s Toprak! Who knew? On the Yamaha, he looks super aggressive. He looks like he’s trying to make time up in these areas, the braking zones.”
Razgatlioglu’s background helps explain why Hodgson’s observation resonated. The report noted that Razgatlioglu last raced at Silverstone in 2014, when he competed in the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup. For the rest of his time in the sport, his experience in Great Britain came primarily from World Superbike Championship events at Donington Park, where he was dominant.
At Donington Park, Razgatlioglu won his first title in the 2017 European Superstock 1000 Championship and later went on to claim 12 World Superbike victories at the circuit. He also won all three WSBK races for BMW in 2024 and 2025. Hodgson’s comments framed Silverstone as a different challenge: the track is wide-open and largely flat, unlike Donington’s narrower, undulating layout, and MotoGP machinery—especially Yamaha’s underpowered V4 M1—differs significantly from the World Superbike bikes Razgatlioglu has previously mastered.
The result is that Razgatlioglu entered the British GP weekend aware he would face a major disadvantage compared to the rest of the MotoGP field, but Hodgson’s takeaway was that the rider’s braking style into Brooklands still provided a clear signal of what he could bring to the fight as the weekend progressed.