Toprak Razgatlioglu hits back at people who said ‘BMW’s not ready to have a championship bike’

Toprak Razgatlioglu wasted no time in showing his potential at the Jerez WorldSBK test, as he led the way from Jonathan Rea during the early stages of day one.

The 2021 world champion with Yamaha immediately broke into the 1m 39s barrier before exchanging times with Remy Gardner at the head of the leaderboard.

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Keen to show BMW’s potential, Razgatlioglu did just that before claiming the bike is good enough to challenge.

Razgatlioglu told WorldSBK.com: “I’m very happy to have good weather, finally! In my first tests, it was a little bit late, and we didn’t have a fully dry session. Now we have a fully dry track and, we showed our potential. This morning, in the first five laps, I did a 1’39.8s with the SC0 tyre. This is very good.

“I immediately saw 1’39s and thought it was good because people said BMW’s not ready to be a Championship bike, but if the bike didn’t have potential, we wouldn’t have done a 1’39s.

“It looks like the bike has potential. We need time and to improve the bike because I’m still learning it. I’m riding the bike for a full day; I’m learning a lot and so are the team.

“My style is probably a bit different, so my team are learning my style. In general, I’m happy. It’s been a positive test.

“Bulega did a good lap time with the SCQ tyre, but I don’t understand why the other riders didn’t do this. Maybe it's the same problem with grip.”

Nicolo Bulega finished over a second clear of the chasing pack, while Razgatlioglu narrowly edged out team-mate Michael Van Der Mark for P3.

Razgatlioglu, who is taking part in his first proper test with BMW after previous outings were impacted by poor weather, admitted he is still learning the M 1000 RR after four years aboard the Yamaha R1.

“After riding for a different brand, the bike feels completely different,” added the Turkish star. “The electronics are different. I’ve almost adapted; not 100% but almost. Today, we tried some new parts and Thursday there are many new parts.

“I hope we improve the bike; this is all I’m focused on. On the last run, I tried the SCQ tyre just to understand it because I’ve not tried it with this bike.

“I need to understand the balance because, always when you put the Q tyre on, the bike is always changing.

“The bike completely changed today. I was just one tenth faster than with the race tyre. We also have the SCQ tyre. I hope we improve the bike and try it again to make a good lap time.”