Hungarian WorldSBK track “like my style” - Toprak Razgatlioglu

Arriving in Hungary with the championship lead for the first time in 2025, Toprak Razgatlioglu says that the Balaton Park circuit has a layout which suits his famed hard-braking style.

BMW’s Razgtlioglu enters the weekend in Hungary, for the first Hungarian World Superbike round since 1990 at the Hungaroring, four points clear of Nicolo Bulega after trebles at Misano and Donington – the latter being a circuit Razgatlioglu described as his “favourite” over the weekend in the UK.

The Turkish rider was one of several riders who was able to try the new circuit back in June ahead of its race weekend debut, and he found that he liked its stop-start nature.

“I’m happy because this is a new track and finally we are arriving to a different track,” Toprak Razgatlioglu told WorldSBK.com ahead of the Hungarian Round.

“This is good, I like this circuit, especially many chicanes but slow slow chicanes – this is like my style.

“I’m happy for that, but we will see because it looks like very hot conditions, but I don’t know on the weekend because it looks like Saturday, maybe Sunday, [it could] rain.

“This is new for everyone, but I really like this circuit.”

Razgatlioglu added that, although he enjoyed the track when he rode it in the June test, he is not sure if it will suit the BMW.

“I think yes, but I’m riding the stock bike [so I didn’t] understand if it will be good or not, because the Superbike is a little bit different and I just rode for two hours or two-and-a-half hours – not more,” he said.

“I’m just learning the track, I didn’t need to adapt the stock bike.

“I just rode almost a half-day and after I just go to the city [laughs].”

“But I really like it, I also learned it immediately, but I’m just waiting for tomorrow because on Friday we are starting riding, finally.”

The Turkish rider explained that he can’t anticipate his competitiveness at Balaton before practice, because he can’t yet know what setup changes he might need to make or how the tyres will respond to the track.

“[It’s] not easy to say anything before Friday, because Friday we will understand who is fast,” he said.

“Tomorrow we will understand because I like this circuit, but we need a race simulation and we need to try the tyres, we need to do some setup, maybe, especially maybe the sprocket because this track is maybe a little bit short – many slow corners, we don’t have the long straight.

“Maybe we need to use a longer bike, maybe shorter, I don’t know – we will see tomorrow.”

Finally, Razgatlioglu was asked if he felt any pressure to win the 1,000th World Superbike race, which will be the Superpole Race on Sunday morning at Balaton, after winning the 800th and 900th races.

“Yes,” he said. “Why not? Yes, I have some pressure.

“This is good, if I win also this race– incredible! Superpole Race, this is very important.”