Toprak Razgatlioglu “not really happy” with bike change despite Estoril WorldSBK pole

A change in setup for his final run of Superpole at the Estoril WorldSBK left Toprak Razgatlioglu “surprised” by his result.

The BMW rider dropped the pole position lap record at Estoril by over a second with his 1:34.203 in Superpole.

It was a lap time that put him over 0.3 seconds clear of the field, and only three other riders – Nicolo Bulega, Alvaro Bautista, and Alex Lowes – were able to lap within a second of the championship leader.

But Razgatlioglu was “surprised” by his lap time, having changed front tyre for his final run.

“First I say I’m really happy, but also I’m surprised when I see the lap time because the second run I used the SC2 front tyre but I’m not really happy,” Toprak Razgatlioglu revealed in his post-Superpole parc ferme interview.

“But I see the lap time is incredible. I’m really happy. 

“Thanks to my team. Every session we still improve the bike. 

“Now I’m just focused on the race because this first race is very important. I’m ready to fight for the win.”

Closest to Razgatlioglu in Superpole was Nicolo Bulega, but the Italian was still 0.346 seconds behind the World Superbike title rival he trails by 36 points ahead of Race 1.

“My lap was not so bad,” Bulega said in his parc ferme interview, “but Toprak [Razgatlioglu] even faster, so congratulations to him and BMW. 

“I hope to improve a little bit for the race and then we will see.”

Bautista “happy” after overnight progress

Alvaro Bautista was only 11th in FP2 on Friday, but put in his best qualifying performance of the season to get onto the front row for Race 1 and the Superpole Race.

The Spanish rider put this down to improvements made overnight by his Aruba.it Racing Ducati team that allowed him to enjoy riding the bike.

“I’m so happy because I don’t remember the last time I was in the first row after Superpole,” Bautista told the WorldSBK world feed broadcast in parc ferme.

“Today, I improved my feeling from yesterday. Thanks to my team because we worked really hard and, sincerely, today I enjoyed too much riding the bike. 

“So, let’s see later, but at the moment I’m quite happy, the lap time was quite good. 

“So, let’s try to enjoy the race later. Really happy to be on the first row of the grid and let’s see. At the moment I’m quite happy with the feeling I have on the bike.”