Balaton MotoGP “benchmark” for Yamaha V4, Toprak “happy to be back”

After celebrating a clean sweep of WorldSBK wins at Balaton Park last season, Toprak Razgatlioglu is “happy to be back” for this weekend’s Hungarian MotoGP event.

After missing out on points at Catalunya and then Mugello, a track he hadn’t raced at since Red Bull Rookies, the Turkish star is eager to experience the stop-go Balaton layout on a MotoGP machine.

“I really like this track. It's quite small and maybe not every MotoGP rider enjoys this kind of layout, but I do,” said Razgatlioglu.

“Last year I had a very strong weekend here, so I'm happy to come back.

“With a MotoGP bike, it will be a different challenge because the circuit is very much a stop-and-go track, but I'm curious to see how the bike behaves and how competitive we can be.

“The most positive thing is that we made good progress recently and found some solutions that helped me feel better on the bike.”

Razgatlioglu took the chequered flag in 15th place last Sunday, but was relegated to 16th after a post-race penalty for exceeding track limits.

“My hope is to start the weekend at the level we reached at the end of Mugello and then continue improving session after session,” Razgatlioglu said.

“That is the target. We will see what happens, but I hope I can enjoy this circuit as much as I did last year.”

Balaton should "suit our bike much better"

A gruelling Mugello weekend for Yamaha ended with Jack Miller classified as the leading M1 rider, in 15th, after Razgatlioglu’s penalty.

“I‘m looking forward to heading back to Balaton. It‘s a tight and technical circuit, quite the opposite of the last two Grand Prix, where the long straights exposed some of the areas we‘re still working to improve,” said Miller.

“The nature of this track should suit our bike much better. It‘s a layout with plenty of changes of direction and sections where agility and handling can make a real difference.

“The YZR-M1 has become much more agile this season, especially in direction changes, and Balaton has a lot of those characteristics.

“Hopefully we can take advantage of some of the strongest aspects of the package and continue the progress we‘ve been showing over the last few races.”

"A very good benchmark"

Pramac Yamaha team director Gino Borsoi also expects the tight, stop-go circuit to be much more suited to the new V4.

“Balaton could be a circuit where we are able to make the most of the strengths of our package,” Borsoi said.

“This will be an important weekend because it gives us a good opportunity to verify whether the progress we have made in areas such as chassis performance and electronics is translating into greater competitiveness on track.

“It is still a relatively new circuit for everyone… That could help make the competition more balanced.

“For that reason, it could be a particularly interesting weekend for Yamaha.

“The characteristics of the track should allow us to better understand the direction we are taking and the value of the improvements introduced in recent races.

“Now we need to see what conditions we find during the weekend, but if the weather cooperates, this circuit could provide a very good benchmark for evaluating our recent progress.”