“Very impressive” - Toprak surprised by Misano MotoGP pace, but “impossible to overtake”
Toprak Razgatlioglu set his fastest lap of the Misano weekend midway through Sunday’s race, but starting last and struggling to overtake frustrated his recovery.
Toprak Razgatlioglu’s best lap of the Misano MotoGP weekend didn’t come in qualifying, on new soft rubber and low fuel, but halfway through Sunday’s grand prix on a used medium tyre.
The Pramac Yamaha rider’s 1m 31.770s on lap 12 of 27 was half a second faster than his Saturday qualifying time, with only Fermin Aldeguer and Pedro Acosta quicker than Razgatlioglu on that lap.
Razgatlioglu was even momentarily faster than race winner Marc Marquez, who set a 1m 31.812s - admittedly while repassing Jorge Martin to take the lead.
But starting last on the grid, combined with an inability to overtake - in turn causing his front tyre to overheat - made the grand prix a frustrating experience for Razgatlioglu.
“We are always fighting [but] on the straight, they make a gap,” Razgatlioglu said. “Then every corner, we are pushing on the brakes to close the gap. The race is always like this.
“This is hard because I'm not overtaking anyone. I'm just closing, again you see the gap [on the straight], closing again. Every lap is like this.
“In the end, also every lap I follow another rider, my front tyre temperature is going quite high, and so the front tyre starts locking, and closing.
“My best is like this, to finish P12.”
Aside from passing Alex Rins and Joan Mir, who would both retire due to sickness, and Franco Morbidelli’s long lap penalty, the reigning WorldSBK champion only gained places due to and riders crashing out ahead.
The last of those was Johann Zarco, moving Razgatlioglu into twelfth place at the chequered flag.
But Razgatlioglu’s mid-race pace and best lap time was a “surprise”.
"Pace is very similar to Fabio"
“I'm also surprised because I see that after half the race, I started doing ‘31, and this is very impressive," he said. "I'm also surprised because I did a ‘31.7, so my best lap this weekend I did in the race. In qualifying, I did not see the ‘31.
“This is good for me. And also, we catch Fabio. Okay, I'm not able to do any overtakes because I'm on the limit already, but the pace is very similar to Fabio. This is good for me because we did a big step.”
However, such pace counts for little if Razgatlioglu continues to start at the back.
“For me, the biggest problem is I'm starting last,” he said.
“If start 10th, 12th or13th position, it’s maybe easy to stay in the top 10. Because the 7th - 8th position riders are doing the same pace as me.
“So for me, qualifying is important. This is a hard, because I’m trying to do better with the soft tyre, but the lap time is not coming. This is my biggest problem.
“I already talked with the team and in Austria we will be focused a lot on Friday to improve this problem.
“If I start a little bit in front, maybe I'm doing a much better race, because my pace is top 10, but it was impossible here to overtake.
“Anyway, for me a positive race, because I see the pace, especially after half the race, is really strong.”
Razgatlioglu now heads straight to next weekend’s Red Bull Ring round, where he has not raced for many years.
“The last time I raced there was with the Rookies Cup, and also we have the chicane there now. We will see,” he said.
Razgatlioglu’s team-mate Jack Miller retired after an early fall and subsequent technical issue.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
