Toprak Razgatlioglu experiences “strange” pace drop in Silverstone MotoGP Sprint

After finishing last and over 30 seconds off the win, Toprak Razgatlioglu has admitted to being “surprised” by the rear tyre drop he experienced in the Silverstone MotoGP Sprint.

Razgatlioglu, like the vast majority of the MotoGP grid, chose the soft-compound rear tyre for the Sprint.

But like most riders who made this choice, he encountered grip issues after a few laps.

For him, the issues were especially pronounced, and by the end of the Sprint Razgatlioglu was lapping over four seconds slower than his best time of the race.

“I'm very surprised because the beginning is not so bad, just I have a turning problem because we tried a different setup for the race,” Toprak Razgatlioglu said after the Sprint.

“I'm already not really like it after the first lap, but I'm not expecting this tyre drop because this one is really strange. 

“I feel the spin [in FP2] because we used a soft tyre again, I do five or six laps – okay I feel the spin but not like [in the Sprint] and I'm just thinking, with a new tyre, after three or four laps maybe it starts to spin a little bit, but in the end it's okay. 

“But after four or five laps later, the tyres drop incredibly. 

“You know, I'm not able to enter the corner because I lose the rear and I'm not able to lean and I'm really surprised because my last lap is 2m04s. It's incredible.

“I'm not leaning the bike and I don't understand why. I checked the data with my crew chief, I asked him ‘Why I drop a lot?’ 

“Everyone drops about the tyre but my one is not normal, I'm not really continuing to ride. 

“If we have a 20-lap race, I think I come back to box but, you know, I'm surprised. 

“If I don't see any problem from the tyre, I think maybe I battle with the KTM riders, but this is the limit. Maybe I would battle Alex [Rins], maybe finish the race behind him. This is the maximum. 

“But when I see the tyre start to drop and I'm just getting worse every lap.”

Looking to Sunday, Razgatlioglu said he needs to improve regardless of tyre compound, with the medium rear tyre expected to be the favoured option for the 20-lap race.

“Of course tomorrow everyone uses a different tyre, but I need to also improve because this one is very strange,” he said.

“I'm just riding like Fabio [Quartararo], like Jack [Miller], you know? Just I don't understand why [the tyre] drops a lot like this.

“Anyway, we will see, they are working. I need to work also on the data. 

“Tomorrow I hope we find this problem because the rear grip is my biggest problem. 

“The turning is okay, I'm keep fighting like this in the race, but the rear tyre, when it drops, I don't have anything in the pocket. Just I'm trying to finish the race.”

Miller’s practice discovery

On the other side of the Pramac Yamaha box, Jack Miller opted for the medium rear tyre and fared much better than Razgatlioglu.

Miller finished 13th and almost 20 seconds ahead of his grip-less team-mate, the Australian's tyre choice made after poor experiences with the soft rear tyre in practice.

“That [medium-compound rear tyre] was for me the correct decision,” Miller said.

“I mean, I did two times, like 11, 12 laps with soft over the weekend and all of them have looked like shit, felt like shit. 

“Honestly, like the last two laps, last lap, I couldn't lean anymore, so I didn't feel confident at all.

“I'm hard on the rear tyre, I rely a lot on the edge going into the corner and the biggest thing for me was having the bike coming around on entry. 

“So I was confident in my decision, I knew it was going to be difficult at the beginning, but at the end we were able to come back through. No points, but a decent Sprint race for us.”