TOPRAK RAZGATLIOLU SAYS HE MUST LEARN SILVERSTONE’S STYLE AFTER TOUGH BRITISH GP

Toprak Razgatlioglu described his British MotoGP at Silverstone as a frustrating outing, despite finishing in a close three-way fight on track. The WorldSBK champion crossed the line sandwiched between Pol Espargaro’s KTM and Yamaha team-mate Augusto Fernandez, but the battle didn’t translate into the result he wanted: “For me it was not fun, because I didn’t beat him!” Razgatlioglu said, referring to his duel with Espargaro.

Razgatlioglu explained that the race swung between strengths for both riders. “In the last laps, he closed the inside of all the corners, but this is normal in a battle,” he said. He added that the performance differences were sector-specific: “Some sectors I'm fast, some sectors he's fast, especially the back straight. In the chicane, I tried, but he was too far for me to pass him.” While he felt the gap to the front was manageable in the moment, the overall pace left him wanting more. “We finished very close, but it’s a very difficult race for me.”

In the final classification, Razgatlioglu was more than ten seconds behind Pramac Yamaha team-mate Jack Miller, who was the highest-placed Yamaha rider in 12th. The race winner was Raul Fernandez, and Razgatlioglu and the rest of the group came home over 40 seconds adrift of the winner.

Looking beyond the immediate result, Razgatlioglu focused on what Silverstone revealed about his MotoGP adaptation. He said the circuit’s fast, flowing character exposed a key area where he still needs to adjust his riding approach: “We need to learn more, because this track, with the long corners, you need to wait more for the correct area to pick up the bike. This is very difficult for me now, because I'm always riding Superbike style.”

He contrasted that with the slower corners, where he felt more comfortable. “The [slow] corners where you stop and pick up the bike, I am riding much better,” he said. Even so, he stressed that he must broaden his technique to match MotoGP demands and the tyre characteristics. “But I also need to learn this style, because next year I will race again at this track. … I need to mix the style on the bike, with the Pirelli tyre.”

Razgatlioglu also framed the weekend as a learning process rather than a failure. “For me it’s a bad race, but I'm just focused on what I learned this weekend,” he said. He pointed ahead to Aragon, noting that it may pose similar challenges to his current style. “We will see next time in Aragon, because Aragon also looks a very difficult track for my style. With the Superbike we did really good races, but we will see with the MotoGP bike and these tyres.”