Toprak Razgatlioglu wins by 8 seconds in French WorldSBK, but “I need to improve”

Toprak Razgatlioglu arrived at Magny-Cours for the French WorldSBK on a nine-race win streak; that was extended to 10 in Race 1, but the BMW rider still feels the necessity to improve.

Razgatlioglu won by over eight seconds in Race 1 at Magny-Cours after taking pole position with a lap record over 0.5 seconds faster than the previous record.

But the BMW rider said he made mistakes at the end of the race and that therefore he needs to find improvements for Sunday’s races.

“Today was incredible because I earned pole position in the Superpole and broke the circuit record,” Toprak Razgatlioglu told WorldSBK.com after Race 1 in France.

“This is special to me, especially after missing Magny-Cours last season because of the big crash I didn’t race.

“I’m happy; we started strong and maintained an incredible pace, but I need to improve in some sectors and certain areas of my bike.

“At the end of the race, I made some mistakes. I felt a lot of locking on the rear tyre, but this is not a big problem and should not be a hard fix.”

Razgatlioglu’s win tied him with Jonathan Rea on nine at Magny-Cours. One more win tomorrow and the reigning World Superbike Champion will make new ground for the production derivative series by becoming the first rider to win 10 races at three different tracks after Donington and Most.

The Race 1 win was also Razgatlioglu’s first at Magny-Cours with BMW having not raced there in 2024 due to injury.

“The feeling is amazing, to win here with three different brands is amazing,” he said.

“I’m at nine wins here now, but I hope I can make it 10 wins tomorrow, maybe even 11 by the end of the weekend.

“Sometimes I’m only thinking about points in the championship, but it’s also very important to focus on riding race-by-race without mistakes.

“This is my favourite track, so here I’m focusing on not making mistakes and winning one race at a time.

“Next round at Aragon, it will be different, everyone is very strong there, but I am just trying to do my best.”