Masterful Razgatlıoğlu Dominates Race 1 at Donington Park

Defending FIM Superbike World Champion Toprak Razgatlıoğlu and his Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK R1 won Race 1 in front of the British crowds at Donington Park, to take his first full-length feature race victory of the 2022 season at his favourite circuit today.

Despite making significant improvements to the set-up of Razgatlıoğlu’s Yamaha R1 WorldSBK overnight, the level of this afternoon’s performance surprised even the Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK team as the #1 rider made a brilliant start from third on the grid to take the lead into Turn 1 at Redgate.

After an initial attempted response from Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea and Alex Lowes, Razgatlıoğlu was untouchable for the full 23-lap race distance and pulled out nearly eight seconds on Rea in second place by the chequered flag – finishing 6.397s in front after crossing the line with a signature “stoppie” on the front wheel.

Razgatlıoğlu’s robotic consistency in the early laps was particularly commendable and helped the Turkish rider control and command his 20th WorldSBK career race victory fully from the front.

In direct contrast, teammate Andrea Locatelli was disappointed with his own race result finishing down in P10 after being unable to make progress forward from starting ninth on the third row of the grid. The team hopes to help him make a step with more corner exit stability on the #55 Yamaha R1 WorldSBK to return to the top six tomorrow.

There’s a lot of racing left to do for both Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK riders in the final day of the UK round tomorrow. After a short 15-minute Warm-Up session at 9:00 (BST), the two main races of the day include the 10-lap sprint Superpole Race at 11:00 and another full-length, 23-lap Race 2 to round off the weekend schedule at 14:00.

Toprak Razgatlıoğlu – Race 1: P1

“I’m really happy today for my first full race win this year – also it was an unbelievable race because Johnny is seven seconds behind me! I see this and at the finish line I try again a winning stoppie! Today I’m really happy, for two days my team has made a huge effort because we try to find the set-up for the race – thank you all very much for the effort. I ride today really relaxed like last year, I’m feeling the bike is much better and I am riding much better, so we will see what happens tomorrow. After becoming World Champion, I have also another dream: one race weekend, to get three wins. I will try in both races tomorrow to win, everyone is fast but I try again!”

Andrea Locatelli – Race 1: P10

“A difficult race compared to normal – the feeling was not coming. It is not an easy track but I don’t understand why this happened yet. We worked a lot with the set-up and the feeling with the bike is great but I think we need to work more in my electronics setting because it wasn’t working for me today. It’s a little bit sad, because I trust in myself, I trust in the team, I trust in everyone because we work very well every weekend. But here we have lost something, I know we can do much better so we need to understand what we can do for tomorrow to try to improve, to return to a good position and fight more in front. It’s important to close the gap because to finish 30 seconds behind Toprak for me is not normal. We will work tonight to see what we can do, and tomorrow I hope to improve a lot.”

Paul Denning – Team Principal, Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK:

“A significant improvement from yesterday from both the team and Toprak. It was Toprak’s best performance of the year so far and with a stunning victory at the team’s home race, we can’t ask for much more! We made a step with Toprak’s R1 setting this morning which translated into a front row qualifying position, but honestly, none of us were expecting him to dominate as he did in Race 1. The increased temperatures today changed things for all competitors, but it seems we adapted well and Toprak was simply outstanding. A huge ‘well done’ to him and all his guys. Andrea had a disappointing race: tenth position was the result but the rhythm and pace was far away from what he and the team have come to expect. He struggled with corner exit stability in particular and, even though he doesn’t have so much experience at this track, I’m convinced that we can give him a much better package tomorrow and I look forward to seeing him take a step.”