Toprak Razgatlioglu, a nightmare at Silverstone: leaving Superbike behind isn’t easy

A nightmare weekend for the three-time Superbike world champion; in England he struggled enormously with the M1: he’s surely counting down the days to 2027.

The MotoGP Grand Prix at Silverstone is one that Toprak Razgatlioglu wants to forget quickly, given the difficulties he faced and the poor results he achieved. In the sprint race he finished last (twentieth), 34 seconds behind winner Jorge Martin, while in the long race he crossed the line second to last (later classified third to last due to Quartararo’s penalty) with a gap of over 41 seconds to Raul Fernandez.

Getting used to results like these is complicated after years in World Superbike where he was accustomed to occupying the top two or three positions. He knew he would run into problems by jumping onto the Yamaha M1 in MotoGP, but he hoped his path would go a bit better than what we’ve seen so far.

On Sunday the Turkish rider was beaten by Pol Espargaro, a KTM tester who replaced Maverick Vinales in the Tech3 team, and he conceded around 12 seconds to teammate Jack Miller. The only rider who finished behind him was Augusto Fernandez, a Yamaha tester who raced at Silverstone as a wildcard and whom you would normally expect to be further back than a full-time MotoGP rider on the same bike. Instead, there was less than a second between them at the end: this shows how hard Razgatlioglu had to work.

At the end of the GP at Silverstone, the number 7 of the Prima Pramac Yamaha team admitted he still hasn’t shaken off his Superbike riding style: "We need to learn more - reports creash.net - because on this track, with its long corners, you have to wait longer for the right moment to pick the bike up. This is very difficult for me right now, because I always ride in Superbike style. In the slow corners, where you stop and pick the bike up, I can ride much better. But I have to learn this style too, because next year I will race on this track again."

Even though it’s easy to think it was a weekend to throw away, the three-time Superbike world champion still has something to salvage that will be useful for the future: "For me it was a bad race, but I’m focused on what I learned. And that’s very important, because next year everything will be different with the bike and the tires. I feel some positives, but we’ll see next time at Aragon, which looks like a very difficult track for my style."

Unlike Silverstone, Aragon is a track he knows much better thanks to his years in WorldSBK. This could help him a bit, but at the same time he’ll need a better Yamaha M1 and to adapt more effectively to the bike and the tires. He needs to move away from his old riding style and embrace a more MotoGP-like one.

In the overall standings Razgatlioglu sits twenty-first with 14 points. He’s the last among the Yamaha contingent. Ahead of him are Alex Rins on 21 and Jack Miller on 23, while Fabio Quartararo is further up (fourteenth with 55 points). He still has a chance to beat two brand-mates far more experienced than he is, but he needs to take a big step forward in riding his M1.