TOPRAK RAZGATLIOGLU SAYS MISANO PACE WAS STRONG BUT OVERTAKING WAS IMPOSSIBLE FROM THE BACK

Toprak Razgatlioglu left Misano with mixed feelings after showing strong race pace but struggling to turn it into a meaningful result. The Pramac Yamaha rider’s standout performance of the weekend came not in qualifying, but during Sunday’s Grand Prix: his best lap was a 1m 31.770s on lap 12 of 27, using a used medium tyre. That mark was about half a second quicker than his Saturday qualifying time, and only Fermin Aldeguer and Pedro Acosta were faster than him on that specific lap.

Razgatlioglu even briefly matched the pace of race winner Marc Marquez, who recorded a 1m 31.812s while repassing Jorge Martin to take the lead. Yet for Razgatlioglu, the race itself became frustrating, largely because he started from the back and found it difficult to pass. He pointed to the circuit’s demands and the way his front tyre behaved when he was stuck behind other riders.

“We are always fighting [but] on the straight, they make a gap,” Razgatlioglu said. “Then every corner, we are pushing on the brakes to close the gap. The race is always like this.”

He added that the challenge wasn’t simply closing up, but completing the move. “This is hard because I'm not overtaking anyone. I'm just closing, again you see the gap [on the straight], closing again. Every lap is like this.”

As the laps stacked up, following riders affected his tyre temperatures and braking stability. “In the end, also every lap I follow another rider, my front tyre temperature is going quite high, and so the front tyre starts locking, and closing.”

With overtaking proving out of reach, Razgatlioglu’s focus shifted to damage limitation. “My best is like this, to finish P12.”

Despite the final position, he described the pace he found mid-race as a genuine surprise. “I'm also surprised because I see that after half the race, I started doing ‘31, and this is very impressive,” he said. “I'm also surprised because I did a ‘31.7, so my best lap this weekend I did in the race. In qualifying, I did not see the ‘31.”

He also highlighted that the race pace was close to that of Fabio Quartararo, even if passing wasn’t possible. “We catch Fabio. Okay, I'm not able to do any overtakes because I'm on the limit already, but the pace is very similar to Fabio. This is good for me because we did a big step.”

Razgatlioglu stressed that the biggest issue was grid position rather than outright speed. “For me, the biggest problem is I'm starting last,” he said. He explained that if he had begun closer to the front—around 10th, 12th or 13th—staying in the top group would have been more realistic because the riders around seventh and eighth were running similar pace to him.

He also linked the difficulty of improving his race result to qualifying challenges, particularly with the soft tyre. “So for me, qualifying is important,” he said. “This is a hard, because I’m trying to do better with the soft tyre, but the lap time is not coming. This is my biggest problem.”

Razgatlioglu said he had already discussed the issue with his team and that the next step would come quickly. “I already talked with the team and in Austria we will be focused a lot on Friday to improve this problem.”

Looking ahead, he suggested that a better starting spot could have transformed the same race pace into a stronger finish, while also reiterating that overtaking at Misano was not straightforward. “If I start a little bit in front, maybe I'm doing a much better race, because my pace is top 10, but it was impossible here to overtake.”

Beyond his own performance, Misano also brought setbacks for Pramac: his teammate Jack Miller retired after an early fall followed by a technical problem.

Razgatlioglu’s attention now turns to the Red Bull Ring, where he said he hasn’t raced for many years. “The last time I raced there was with the Rookies Cup, and also we have the chicane there now. We will see,” he said.