Toprak Razgatlioglu only finished “second-worst race of my life” out of respect for Yamaha

Pramac MotoGP rider Toprak Razgatlioglu says his pace was so bad in the Austrian Grand Prix that he questioned “how is it possible to finish the race?”

The Red Bull Ring weekend was difficult for Yamaha, though Fabio Quartararo impressed with ninth in qualifying as his stablemates lined up at the back of the grid.

But Sunday’’s 28-lap Austrian Grand Prix was a nightmare for the brand, which finished outside of the points, with Quartararo its best-placed rider in 17th.

Razgatlioglu was second-to-last, 46.7s from the lead and 12s behind Alex Rins ahead of him, while team-mate Jack Miller was almost 70s back from the winner.

“The second-worst race of my life”

Pramac’s Razgatlioglu said he suffered from a lack of traction from the off, leading him to brand the Austrian Grand Prix the “second-worst race of my life”.

He admits he considered pulling out of the race before the finish, but only went to the chequered flag out of “respect” for Yamaha.

“I am also very shocked, because the beginning, the first five laps, already I’m not feeling the grip,” he said.

“I feel just spin. I’m really angry on the bike because I just asked to myself, ‘It’s a new tyre, but how is it possible there’s no grip at the beginning?’

“I saw Fabio was riding very well, but in the end the tyres dropped. But we expect this.

“But at the beginning we don’t normally expect this. Yesterday, we rode very well… OK, when we fought with Pol [Espargaro] we lost the group, but in the end, we did a good job.

“But today we struggled more: if bike has no grip, we have no acceleration.

“In the end, the last six laps, I asked myself, ‘How is it possible to finish the race?’, because on the straight it was just spinning.

“From the exit of the first corner, when I pick up the bike I just spin. Everywhere, I just felt spin in the last six laps.

“This was the second-worst race of my life, [the other] was also this year.

“One was in Thailand. I felt the same this, with no grip. Here, it’s the same [tyre], so it’s very strange. Yesterday we could manage. But, today, I’m not expecting this.

“I was thinking sometimes to come into the box. But I respect Yamaha enough to continue to ride, because the pace was a disaster.

“I just tried to finish the race, but I was enjoying it zero. I think all of the Yamahas were the same.”