Toprak Razgatlioglu says Jack Miller “helped a lot”, but MotoGP tyre spin “doesn't stop”

MotoGP star rookie Toprak Razgatlioglu narrowly missed out on his goal of a 1m 57s lap at the Sepang test.

However, some laps behind Pramac team-mate Jack Miller did confirm the reigning WorldSBK champion’s current strengths and weaknesses on the new V4.

After Yamaha’s test was halted on day two due to a technical issue, Razgatlioglu returned to set a best time of 1m 58.326s on the final day.

That was just a fraction behind Miller’s best - the Australian being as quick during a Sprint simulation as he was in a time attack - but 0.746s behind the top Yamaha of Alex Rins and 1.924s from the pace-setting Gresini Ducati of Alex Marquez.

"Jack helped me a lot today"

“I‘m trying to understand where I need to improve and also how much I need to adapt my riding style to this bike,” Toprak Razgatlioglu said. “Jack helped me a lot today - I followed him for a few laps to understand how to approach some corners that are still tricky for me.”

The comparison underlined that: “On braking, I'm strong, I can make hard braking and stop the bike, it's perfect. But the long corners, still I don’t understand… Jack is very strong in the long corners.”

"When the Michelin spins, it doesn't stop"

Much of the difficulty, he believes, comes from learning how to exploit MotoGP’s rear Michelin tyre.

“The front tyre now, the feedback is perfect, but the rear tyre is still difficult because it’s so sensitive. It’s not easy for me to understand the tyre grip,” Razgatlioglu explained.

“The Pirelli [in WorldSBK] when you feel the spin, it’s easy to manage. But when the Michelin spins, it doesn't stop again. The other riders know this tyre better, but for me it's very difficult.

“You need to ride like a Moto2 style and open the gas very gentle, because this tyre is so sensitive. I'm trying to adapt to this, my team always say ‘ride smooth’, but to say is easy!

“When I'm riding the bike with a new tyre, it's so difficult to wait a lot to open the gas, because in Superbike I'm always using the rear tyre to turn. I was always using the rear tyre for sliding and pick up and good acceleration, but MotoGP is the opposite.

“In Thailand, maybe we will try some different setups, we just tried some new parts and just focused on riding the bike. But now it looks like we need some different suspension setup, because I need some help for the turning and more grip.”

"I'm riding a touring bike now!”

One experiment already underway is a higher handlebar position.

“Yeah, I'm riding a touring bike now!” he joked. “I just try like a Superbike style, in some areas I feel perfect, especially on the brakes, I'm really strong with this handlebar, but I lose on the straight.

“I lose a little bit of top speed and maybe I lose a little bit in the corner, because this handlebar is high, so it’s not easy to lean down. Also this is normally not my style, normally I'm not leaning so far down, but now we start trying to change my riding style, because MotoGP needs this.”

The final MotoGP test before Razgatlioglu’s MotoGP race debut takes place at Buriram on the weekend of February 21-22.