“My fault”: Toprak Razgatlioglu takes the blame for P20 in French MotoGP Practice

Toprak Razgatlioglu says it was his “fault” that he finished down in 20th in French MotoGP Practice in his first day on Le Mans’ Bugatti Circuit.

Razgatlioglu was the slowest of the four Yamaha riders and almost 0.9 seconds behind next-slowest Fabio Quartararo.

The Pramac Yamaha rider explained afterwards that he is still not completely comfortable with the track, and that the field spread was much smaller than he expected, with the top 19 riders all within a second of the fastest time.

“Today‘s position is my fault,” Toprak Razgatlioglu said after Practice in France.

“It‘s not easy because I‘m still trying to fully understand the track, but at the same time I was surprised by how close everybody is here – almost everyone is doing very similar lap times.

“Today I was finally able to see some low 1m31s, but my target is to get into the 1m30s tomorrow. 

“I‘m still learning the circuit while also trying to ride at the limit, so step by step I need to improve in every area.”

Part of Razgatlioglu’s reason for taking the responsibility for the performance himself must be linked to the performance of Alex Rins, who was sixth on the factory bike and the only Yamaha in the top-15 – proving that the lap time is in the bike.

“Alex [Rins] did a really good job today with the Yamaha,” said Razgatlioglu, “and Jack [Miller] was also very strong, so I need to keep my head down and continue working. 

“As for the track itself, I‘m really happy to finally ride at this legendary circuit, although I have to admit I still don‘t fully understand the first corner yet.”

Razgatlioglu added that he feels he has made a step with his riding style, especially after spending some time behind Trackhouse Aprilia rider Ai Ogura.

“One positive thing is that today I wasn‘t riding with my Superbike style anymore,” Razgatllioglu said.

“I followed Ogura for a while and focused on understanding the MotoGP lines and corner entry. 

“In some corners we were quite similar, but when opening the throttle he had a clear advantage in acceleration compared to me.”

Rins “proud” of top-10 performance

Alex Rins’ sixth place is his best Practice performance of the season so far and gets him a first Q2 appearance of 2026.

The Spanish rider had been told before the Jerez race that he will no longer be a Yamaha MotoGP rider in 2027, but Friday in France was one of his best days on the YZR-M1. 

“I am so proud of what I achieved: I was able to go straight into Q2,” Rins said.

“It's been a long time since I last managed that, so I'm happy about achieving this today.

“When I arrived at the box, I saw the mechanics being happy too. When the going is tough, results like this are a boost for the team. 

“We need to live in the moment today and then let's see what we can do tomorrow – for sure I will do my best again! But we'll go step by step and session by session.”

While it was a strong result for Rins, his teammate Fabio Quartararo was only 17th on the opening day of his home grand prix.

“It was tough because I expected much more, especially on one lap, because I was feeling great doing them at the Jerez test,” he said.

“Today I didn't have that same feeling, and I made some mistakes on my best lap, but it was not bad. 

“I had a bit of an – for us – unusual feeling on the bike, but let's check. We have a lot of data that we can analyse, also from Alex [Rins], so that will be interesting to see. We have to make a step for tomorrow.”