– Toprak Razgatlioglu has achieved his first milestone in MotoGP. At the USA Grand Prix in Austin, the Turk collected his first World Championship point in 15. place. What was remarkable about this result was that Razgatlioglu was also the best Yamaha rider. Pramac teammate Jack Miller and former world champion Fabio Quartararo finished right behind him.
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Yet the weekend at the Circuit of The Americas, where Razgatlioglu had already raced in the Red Bull Rookies Cup in 2013, had begun anything but well. After Friday practice, he was annoyed because the Yamaha wasn’t braking properly.
“I keep making the same mistake in turns 11 and 12 because the bike doesn’t brake there. I don’t know why. We are trying to understand why the bike doesn’t brake there. In turn 12, after the long straight, the front tire always locks up under braking.”
“It’s very strange. Only in these two corners. If I can get a handle on these two corners, the lap time will be significantly better. I might have finished in the top 10 or in position 11 – I don’t know. But I am very angry with the bike.”
On the demanding COTA, another deficit of the new V4 Yamaha also became clear. “On the straight I follow Aprilia,” Razgatlioglu describes and compares: “They gain 0,2, maybe 0,3 seconds. Unbelievable.”
In qualifying, the reigning Superbike World Champion finished in 17. place on the grid. He was only two tenths of a second behind Quartararo. In the sprint, the Yamaha riders fought against each other again at the back of the field.
Razgatlioglu had to retire with a technical defect. According to the Pramac team, there was apparently an electronic problem. Razgatlioglu said after the sprint that he was “trying to maintain motivation”.
Much praise from Fabio Quartararo
Finally, he achieved a sense of success in the Grand Prix. Already in the warm-up, Razgatlioglu indicated his good form with fifth place. In the race, he kept Miller at bay and was able to overtake Quartararo in the final quarter of the race.
The Frenchman was impressed by Razgatlioglu: “Yes, really! And not just in the race, but the whole weekend. So yes, I’m impressed, and I think that’s great for him. The way he rides and what he does is good.”
Did Quartararo notice anything while riding behind the Superbike World Champion? “My problem was that my tires dropped off massively in the last five laps and he stayed a bit more consistent.”
“He rode really fluidly, right in his style, as you know it from Superbike: always sideways. And yes, I think I was really impressed by his performance.” Razgatlioglu thus also gave the Pramac team its first World Championship point of the year.
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Veteran Miller had to line up behind. “Toprak is doing a fantastic job,” he also praised the MotoGP newcomer. “I saw him and Fabio having a nice duel, and yes, I hoped they might hold each other up – but he managed that quite well.”
Razgatlioglu himself is less happy
Razgatlioglu himself, however, did not want to let any euphoria arise after his first World Championship point: “I’m happy, but not really. We worked well at Yamaha, but overall, with a gap of over 25 seconds, that’s not really good. We need to improve even more.”
“In the race I always give my best, as always. Especially at the beginning I tried to overtake Fabio. But Fabio is particularly strong in the corner after the long straight. How he brakes his bike, I don’t understand, because my front tire always locks up when braking.”
“I’m not trying to brake even later because the bike just doesn’t brake. But in the end, his tires also started to drop off. I then overtook him in another corner and after that just tried to find my rhythm.”
“Anyway, I got my point,” Razgatlioglu says, naming the positive aspect. “That’s good, my first point. But overall I’m not really happy because we are 25 seconds behind the leader.”
“But I learned a lot because I rode many laps behind Fabio today. I saw something, I learned a lot and understood more. But we will see in Jerez, because Jerez is very difficult, as the last time I rode there was in Superbike.”
“I did a test there with the GP bike, but the riding style and the bike are completely different. You have to keep more speed in the corner. I hope I can adapt to this style quickly, because during the test I was still riding like on a Superbike.”
“Anyway, Yamaha is pushing very hard to continue improving. We will see when we make big progress. Maybe at the end of the year, I don’t know, maybe in the middle, maybe next year. We will see.”
With nine World Championship points from the first three race weekends, Yamaha and its new V4 project are clearly at the bottom of the manufacturers’ standings.
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