Razgatlioglu: “The championship is not done”

Toprak Razgatlioglu fought back through the field to claim second place in race one of the Czech Republic WorldSBK round at Most, cutting Alvaro Bautista title lead to 54 points.

Peter McLaren

29 Jul 2023

Toprak Razgatlioglu takes pole position, , Czech WorldSBK, 29 July

The Pata Yamaha rider, winner of the previous two races, joined Saturday winner Jonathan Rea in correctly selecting intermediate tyres.

However, while Rea held a top five place during the difficult early laps when the track was at its wettest, Razgatlioglu sank to 13th.

The early time lost to Rea would come back to haunt Razgatlioglu when, with the wet tyre riders forced to pit and out of the victory equation, the Turkish star passed Danilo Petrucci for second at the midway stage - but was still 11-seconds behind the Kawasaki.

Razgatlioglu slashed Rea’s advantage to four-seconds by the chequered flag, indicating what might have been without his early woes.

But with reigning champion Alvaro Bautista starting on wets and only managing twelfth, Razgatlioglu still made his biggest championship gains of the season, cutting the Ducati rider’s title lead to 54-points.

A maximum of 37 points are available on Sunday, followed by another four rounds (and 248 points) after the summer break.

“The beginning of the race was difficult for me because I’m not very experienced with the intermediate tyre,” Razgatlioglu told WorldSBK.com. “I didn’t understand the grip because this is only the third time in my life I’ve tried the intermediate tyre.

“But after 5-6 laps I started pushing and especially in the last 6 laps I pushed a lot for the win but it was impossible because I think the gap was 15 seconds at one stage and it was four seconds at the finish.

“Maybe if I’d been a bit faster at the start I’d have been fighting for the win.”

Razgatlioglu revealed he was even considering fitting slicks on the grid, but was thinking about the championship even before taking a bite out of Bautista's lead.

“We were talking about slick and intermediate tyres. I was thinking to gamble [on slicks] but I said it’s better to be safer because the championship is not finished," Razgatlioglu said.

“I almost crashed at corner 13 at the beginning when I locked the rear. So anyway we are lucky to finish second, especially with Alvaro 12th.

“Now it’s 54 points between me and Alvaro, it’s nice, a good number! We will see tomorrow…

“I was happy after ten laps today on intermediates but in general I’m not really happy because it looked like this weekend without the rain I could win, so I hope tomorrow we are winning again. Even if it rains.”