Toprak Razgatlioglu infuriates Bastianini and is penalized: what happened

The three-time Superbike world champion at the center of a negative episode in Qualifying: an angry Beast and a penalty handed down.

Life is very tough for Toprak Razgatlioglu in MotoGP, where he landed in 2026 hoping to have a more competitive Yamaha M1 than the one he’s actually been riding in recent months. Unfortunately, performances and results have been anything but exciting so far. His share of responsibility is limited, as the overall technical project isn’t allowing any rider to be competitive.

Nothing changed in Brno; the difficulties continue. No Yamaha managed to reach Q2 in Qualifying, and the best on the starting grid will be Fabio Quartararo, only fifteenth.

Razgatlioglu did no better than the penultimate time in Q1; only Cal Crutchlow on the LCR Honda did worse. But the Turk from the Prima Pramac Yamaha team will still start last on the MotoGP race grid in the Czech Republic.

In fact, he was given a 3-place grid penalty for impeding Enea Bastianini at the end of Q1. The incident occurred at Turn 10, where Toprak was too slow and thus hindered the time attack of the KTM Tech3 rider, who was visibly furious with his colleague. The whole matter was investigated and led the FIM MotoGP Stewards Panel to decide to penalize the three-time Superbike world champion, who will start twenty-second instead of twenty-first on Sunday’s grid.

It wasn’t a great Qualifying for the 2026 MotoGP rookie, so the sanction won’t change much. Bastianini didn’t shine either; he’ll start seventeenth. We don’t know how his final time attack would have ended without Toprak’s obstruction, but it’s unlikely he would have managed to gain access to Q2. He’ll need to be strong in his comeback, something that has happened to him several times during his two years on the KTM.