Toprak Razgatlioglu attempts to fly and falls into the sea: the MotoGP rider's failed feat

The three-time Superbike world champion is trying to keep his spirits up despite the difficulties encountered riding the M1. Before the Aragon GP, he was also involved in a crash in Turkey.

Toprak Razgatlioglu knew that moving to MotoGP with Yamaha would be a huge challenge, but he hoped to do better than what we’re seeing. After twelve grands prix he has collected only 14 points, and his best result is the eleventh place achieved in the long race in Hungary.

It’s hard to assess the former Superbike rider on an M1 that is putting even more experienced riders like Fabio Quartararo, Alex Rins and Jack Miller in enormous difficulty. If they’re struggling, why wouldn’t a rookie coming from the production-derived championship struggle too? Unfortunately, the new V4 engine prototype project is not making progress, and that makes it difficult to achieve noteworthy results.

The 29-year-old Turk is fully aware of his complicated situation, but it doesn’t stop him from thinking he can at least get some satisfaction in the upcoming rounds of the 2026 MotoGP calendar: "My goal this year remains to finish in the top 10," reports Crash.net. "In the last ten races I’ll try to improve further and, if we manage to place in the top ten, I’ll be happy. But it’s not easy. I’m trying to get the best possible result."

Razgatlioglu pointed out the track he likes most, though it will only be raced at the penultimate GP, so his hope is to improve before then: "Every rider has a favorite circuit. Mine is Portimão in Superbike, but we’ll see with MotoGP. I hope that before Portimão we’ll manage to get a special result. But now the first goal is to improve and be on the pace with the other Yamaha riders at Aragon."

Even though he has set the goal of at least one top-10 finish for the rest of the current MotoGP season, the Prima Pramac Yamaha rider is now focused on the next grand prix at Aragon. He wants to close the gap to his fellow brand riders and look to grow; he needs to see improvements to keep motivation high and avoid being overwhelmed by dejection and frustration.

While waiting to fly to Aragon, on Sunday Razgatlioglu took part in the Red Bull Uçuş Günü in Turkey, specifically at Caddebostan Beach in Istanbul. The Red Bull event has participants try to cover the longest possible distance in the air after jumping off a platform with homemade contraptions.

Toprak isn’t one to back down and wanted to try taking off with a sort of hang glider attached to a Yamaha R6. The attempt was a total failure: the MotoGP rider was pushed by some people and, in the final phase before trying to take flight, something didn’t work and he ended up directly in the sea along with the bike, holding the structure that had meanwhile detached.

Hands on heads all around, starting with Kenan Sofuoglu, Razgatlioglu’s manager and mentor, who was present at the event. Some concern about a possible injury was natural, but Razgatlioglu emerged unscathed from the plunge into the water. The Prima Pramac team and Yamaha also breathed a sigh of relief.

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