Toprak Razgatlioglu previews Cremona World Superbike: “Ducati is very strong”

WorldSBK’s earlier return to Cremona Circuit compared to the Italian venue’s debut one year ago marks the fourth stop on the 2025 schedule, and for Toprak Razgatlioglu it means some apprehension about his competitiveness versus the Ducati riders.

Current 2025 points leader Nicolo Bulega, who DNF’d twice at Assen two weeks ago with technical issues, was second in Race 1 and third in Race 2 last year at Cremona, and will surely be among the favourites this weekend having not finished a race outside the top-two all season.

Additionally, Ducati won all three races last year with Danilo Petrucci, and Alvaro Bautista was on the podium in the two long races. Only Alex Lowes, riding a Kawasaki at the time, was able to break Ducati’s podium monopoly at Cremona last year when he finished second in the Superpole Race behind Petrucci and ahead of Andrea Iannone.

While Ducati was dominating the 2024 Italian Round, winning all three races with Danilo Petrucci and securing three out of three podium lockouts, Razgatlioglu, in contrast, never raced at Cremona last year, the race taking place two weeks after his huge Magny-Cours practice crash that saw him miss six races.

“Last year I only rode [at Cremona] one day – I did 40 laps, 50 laps, not more,” Razgatlioglu told WorldSBK.com in preview of the 2025 Italian Round, after finishing eighth in Race 2 at Assen.

“Also, I didn’t race there, I just watched on the TV.

“I don’t know, I don’t have some idea, we will see in Cremona.

“I will just try to do my best again, but it looks like Ducati is very strong also last year there.

“But we will see, I hope we find a good setup immediately and are fighting for the win again.”

Razgatlioglu is not the only big World Superbike name to be debuting at Cremona this weekend, as six-time champion Jonathan Rea will return from his two-month injury lay-off and take part in a race weekend for the first time on 2–4 May in Lombardy.