Toprak Razgatlioglu: “The rider is a big difference” at Portimao WorldSBK

Just over one month on from the season opener at Phillip Island, WorldSBK is at Portimao this weekend for the second round of 2025, a venue that Toprak Razgatlioglu has won at six times.

The reigning champion, who is 42 points behind championship leader Nicolo Bulega after the opening round, says that the layout of the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve is one that lets the rider make more difference than the bike.

“Ducati every weekend is improving, but here I think the rider is a really big difference because this track is a little bit of a ‘rollercoaster’ and not only the bike [helps the performance],” Razgatlioglu – who was infamously frustrated by the Ducati dominance in Australia in February – told WorldSBK.com on Thursday ahead of the Portuguese Round.

“Also you need to push hard for 20 laps – this is hard because this track is up, down, like a rollercoaster – you feel the tyre on the bike.

“But, in general, I really like the track, it’s almost my favourite track, I’m always strong here. But the race is always different.”

Razgatlioglu explained that the Phillip Island layout never worked for him or the BMW World Superbike machine because of its long corners, whereas he can make a difference in the hard braking points at Portimao.

“After Phillip Island I feel much better because finally this is ‘my style’ of track, because Phillip Island is long corners – for me this is too hard, and also the bike is not easy to make work in that track,” Razgatlioglu said.

“But here I’m more strong, especially in the slow corners I make more hard braking, and I’m feeling really good.

“Also, we did a test here with a very good lap time. We had– [we can’t say] a new record because it was a test; we will see this weekend, I will try again [to set] a new record.

“The general feeling is good, it looks like we are ready to race, but the race weekend is always different.

“I’m not flying, I’m just focused on my job. Tomorrow we are starting finally, because after Phillip Island we had a very long break; now I’m really ready to race, and I’m just trying to fight for the win.”