Toprak Razgatlioglu “learning to ride MotoGP bike like Quartararo”

Toprak Razgatlioglu is making progress in adapting to the MotoGP riding style and learning to ride like Yamaha leader Fabio Quartararo, according to Pramac team principal Gino Borsoi.

Razgatlioglu endured a tough weekend on the slippery Catalunya surface, qualifying last and finishing ahead of only Yamaha wildcard Augusto Fernandez in the Sprint.

The reigning WorldSBK champion then completed the weekend with what looked like the final point for 15th place in the twice-restarted grand prix.

However, Razgatlioglu and team-mate Jack Miller were among five riders to receive post-race tyre pressure penalty, dropping the Turkish star to 16th.

Razgatlioglu then signed off his Catalunya weekend with 19th (+1.257s) on the timesheets at the post-race test.

“The potential is there"

“I wouldn’t say he rides badly; he rides differently - the way he’s always ridden in Superbike," GPone.com quotes Borsoi as saying.

"Obviously, there isn’t enough time to radically change his riding style, which inevitably needs to be adapted to this paddock because of the tyres we have and the characteristics of MotoGP. 

"It’s not easy to do that during races: time is limited, and you always want to focus on the result, but to change your riding style, you have to lose time, and no rider wants to do that. 

"Now Toprak has started with this approach and, unfortunately for him, he’ll take two steps back before taking four steps forward, once everything is ‘in sync."

Nonetheless: "We’ve already seen it: looking at the data, you can see that in many corners, he’s already learned to ride like Quartararo."

“The potential is there; we just have to wait, and it’s also fair to give him time to adapt his riding style to this new category.”

Borsoi added: “If we look at the gap in the race, Quartararo is the benchmark, but there were moments when even Toprak managed to lap just half a second behind the leaders.”

Razgatlioglu’s best lap of the race was 0.630s behind winner Fabio di Giannantonio (Ducati) and within 0.2s of Quartararo’s best on the way to what became fifth place, after post-race penalties.

Turning to the upgrades at Monday’s test, Borsoi explained: “We had the chance to test a few different upgrades, a chassis and some new aerodynamics.

“Toprak especially felt better with the new chassis in the corners, so I'm quite optimistic about that.

“And regarding aerodynamics, for Jack Miller, he felt better - that it was much more easy to lean the bike into the corners. Quartararo, I guess, said the same.

“So I think we found something.”

However, Borsoi confirmed there is still no news on an engine update to address the new V4’s current straight-line deficit.

“Honestly speaking, we have no news about any engine upgrade,” he said.