Razgatlıoğlu Back to Winning Ways with Dominant Superpole Race Victory

Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK rider and defending FIM Superbike World Champion Toprak Razgatlıoğlu took his first victory of the season in style in the 10-lap Superpole Race at Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” in Italy this morning.

The Turkish ace followed this spectacular performance with a very strong second place in Race 2 after a fierce early battle with Alvaro Bautista (Ducati). Teammate Andrea Locatelli pushed hard to record two top six results in the hottest conditions of the season so far.

In the Superpole Race this morning, the team’s defending champion Razgatlıoğlu only gave Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea a brief look at a clear track at the end of lap one, before putting on a dominant display to win in front of the Italian fans with a relentless run of sub-1’34 lap times – setting a new race lap record in the process (1’33.722).

During the opening laps of Race 2, Razgatlıoğlu made a strong challenge for the race win, making some aggressive and opportunistic passes, before settling for a strategic second place to bring home 20 crucial championship points.

“Loka” fought hard in both races to maximise his results at home, and in front of his enthusiastic fan club, but was unable to improve on P6 in all three races. In Race 2, he showed grit and determination to fight back from some early mistakes and continue his consistent run of results finishing within the top six for the ninth-straight race in a row.

WorldSBK now has a four-week break before Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK’s home round at Donington Park in the UK from 15-17 July.

Toprak Razgatlıoğlu – SPRC: P1 / Race 2: P2

“I’m very happy for the win in the Superpole Race after the technical problem yesterday! But also in Race 1 I was feeling some problems with the performance, and this morning we made a big improvement and the bike is much better – I ride like my style and I am enjoying the race, I’m very happy for this! I enjoyed a lot! In Race 2, I try my best because very, very hot conditions, last year I don’t remember this weather. Also, Alvaro was very fast, very fast pace. Some sectors, I am coming back to him, some sectors he is very fast – after ten laps, I say okay second position is enough for me in this race, to risk more would be difficult. I hope again in Donington I am fighting for the win – I love the circuit, and to have this weekend finishing in a good way ready for the next round, I am very happy. One first position and one second position, we improve the bike a lot and this is good motivation for Donington.”

Andrea Locatelli – SPRC: P6 / Race 2: P6

“In the end we finish in P6-6-6, it was a difficult weekend for me here in Misano but for sure it was a big improvement with respect to last year which is a good point for us. We need to continue to work on the bike, and I need to trust myself on the bike to improve and to try to close the gap. We have a lot of data now, and it was the first race weekend in really hot conditions so we learned something about where we need to improve the bike set-up and where I need to improve myself. It is a good start to continue in these conditions.”

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

“After yesterday’s disappointment, Toprak’s team did an incredible job to first of all solve the fundamental problem and secondly, change the package to give Toprak something he could really get the best out of today. The dominant Superpole Race victory was just what we needed and he fought like an animal in Race 2, but didn’t have quite enough for a second victory. Congratulations to Toprak, his engineers and crew – we made a huge step today and this will take us forward to Donington in a much more confident mood. Loka’s results were a mirror of yesterday’s, but achieved in a different way. Race 2 saw him make a few errors in the first couple of laps, and it cost him a lot of track position but the positive aspect of the result was the way he kept digging in and pushing right to the end to secure another top six place which was excellent damage limitation. Thanks to all our partners and the huge number of fans that came to Misano this weekend, we hope they enjoyed the show!”