Toprak Razgatlioglu airs familiar BMW complaint at Aragon WorldSBK

Toprak Razgatlioglu says he faced a mechanical problem in FP2 at the Aragon WorldSBK, but his main concern ahead of Saturday at the 10th round of the 2025 season is fixing a common problem for him this year on the BMW M1000 RR.

Razgatlioglu ended FP2 second-fastest behind Nicolo Bulega, over whom he currently enjoys a 39-point championship lead, although it was the BMW rider himself who had the fastest time of the day, that coming in FP1.

The Turkish rider completed a long race simulation of 12 laps in World Superbike FP2, but he explained that it ended because of a problem with his shifter.

“I’m really happy because we tried a race simulation, but during the race simulation, I think it was lap 12, I felt some mechanical problem because the shifting had some problem,” Toprak Razgatlioglu explained, speaking with WorldSBK.com after practice.

“We changed the shifter, but I rode again [with] the same tyre. We did the end of the session with a good lap time, but almost we did 19 laps. It looks like everything is good.”

The area Razgatlioglu wants to improve ahead of Saturday is the engine brake of the M1000 RR, a familiar objective for the Turkish rider in 2025.

“On the bike, I feel good,” he said. “We need still to improve some corners because the engine brake is still not enough, [in] the hot conditions especially. 

“But, in general, I’m happy, I started very strong. That’s good because the target in Aragon is I need to win. 

“But this is only Friday, tomorrow we will see. I’m just trying more than 100 per cent.”

At the beginning of the season, when Bulega was winning most of the races, Razgatlioglu struggled to hide his frustration at the performance of the Ducati in certain areas of some circuits.

On Friday in Aragon, however, he was considerably more relaxed about losing “0.2 or 0.3 seconds” to the Ducati riders in the final sector.

“Especially the back straight and last corner the Ducati is always a big advantage and I lose sometimes 0.2 or 0.3 seconds,” Razgatlioglu said.

“But, anyway, no problem. The other sectors I’m always fast, I try to push more for more gap.”

Razgatlioglu also expressed some scepticism over the race pace of Bulega, saying the Italian chose to run a new tyre on his second run in FP2.

“I did also good race pace, but Nicolo [Bulega] did a short race [simulation] and after he put a new tyre and he did a good lap time also,” he said.

“But I’m just focused on my race pace. Also the beginning lap I’m easy to push [to make] a good lap time, but I’m just riding like race style. 

“But I started well, the team and everyone worked hard, everyone now is very happy and positive inside because everyone worked hard for the Aragon race. 

“We will see tomorrow – tomorrow is a new day. I hope also we improve a little bit because if we improve I’m riding more relaxed – this is important for me.”