Toprak Razgatlioglu: The celebration? “Some teams said my seat is not allowed”

Toprak Razgatlioglu: 'It's easy to explain [the celebration]... Yesterday night some different teams say my lower seat is not allowed.'

Toprak Razgatlioglu, Donington Park WorldSBK 2024
Toprak Razgatlioglu, Donington Park WorldSBK 2024

Toprak Razgatlioglu extended his WorldSBK win streak to a magnificent seven, further boosting his title lead - then had a light-hearted poke at some of BMW’s rivals, rumoured to include Ducati, for questioning the height of his modified seat.

Razgatlioglu led for all but two laps of the Donington Park races. His biggest ever 11.384s winning margin in Saturday's outing was followed by a half-distance Superpole win of 4.826s, then another crushing 8.062s victory in Race 2.

The size of the Turkish star's advantage perhaps gave him more time than usual to plan his post-race celebrations, which ended with him pulling over for a mock 'Technical Inspection' on the slowdown lap of the final race.

The 'officials' made a public show of measuring the seat height of his M1000RR and Razgatlioglu later confirmed:

"It's easy to explain [the celebration]... Yesterday night some different teams say my lower seat is not allowed. We changed a little bit the seats and today we did two races, win again.

"Anyway, everyone tries more than 100%. I understand that it’s not easy for everyone because this is the World Championship."

Razgatlioglu is certainly making life hard for his and BMW's rivals at the moment, and warned that he isn't satisfied with seven in a row: 

"That's good… but I need more! We have many races... My target every race weekend is to try for three wins."

Donington was the second event in a row where Razgatlioglu had achieved that goal.

"The feeling is incredible. After Misano, we did it again. This is an incredible year for me and BMW. This is a new challenge and every race weekend we are getting better and stronger.

"Before coming here, I'm just thinking about the three wins again, like Misano. Because this is my favourite track and the bike is working unbelievably here, especially the engine brake and turning. 

"I need just this; easy stopping and good acceleration.

"The grip is not really fantastic but in general the bike is working really good and like this it’s easy to show my potential."

Razgatlioglu has now built his title lead to 41-points over Ducati rookie Nicolo Bulega, bringing BMW's dream of a long-awaited first WorldSBK title ever closer.

"Now with BMW, we are coming step by step for the world title," he said.

"Phillip Island was not an easy weekend but when we came to Europe, we started winning and I understand we have a big potential. 

"But now every race we are winning with a big gap. OK, maybe this big gap was special for this circuit. And maybe in Most we are fighting with the other riders, but we will see.

"I'm just focused race by race and trying for more wins."

Free practice for the Czech WorldSBK round starts on Friday.

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