Toprak Razgatlioglu could not catch up with Alvaro Bautista in Barcelona, instead, he lost the advantage and in the second half of the race was forced to defend against attacks by Jonathan Ray, Garrett Gerloff, and Alex Lowes. The reason? An error in choosing the rear tire and an error in the attack strategy.
The Turk started from the first line and immediately sat on the tail of Bautista, who passionately wanted to win the home race in Barcelona. Ducati held a real master class in aerobatics, without making a single mistake, and was virtually out of reach: Bau crossed the finish line with an 8-second advantage…
Toprak made attempts to attack from the very start, but then was forced to retreat and was immediately overtaken by a large group of pursuers.
“Today I felt much better in Barcelona after qualifying. We knew that there was a shortage of a holder on the rear wheel, but we thought we had solved this problem. However, it reappeared in the race: in the last laps, I felt a significant drop of rubber. I continued to fight as far as it was possible and safe. In the end, 5th place is the best place I could keep. But, of course, absolutely not the result I was hoping for.”
“The last 6 laps are very important in Barcelona, so we will now make a number of efforts to solve this problem with wear. Let’s hope it won’t rain tomorrow after all.”
Toprak Razgatlioglu retained the 2nd position in the World Superbike Championship, but finishing 2nd behind Bautista Ray reduced the gap from the Yamaha pilot to 8 points. Bautista managed to increase the gap from his pursuers to 44 points after Saturday’s race.