Toprak Razgatlioglu after Portimao WorldSBK reliability woe: “I don’t care about FP1”

Reigning WorldSBK Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu has dismissed concerns over the reliability of his BMW M1000 RR after he missed the whole of FP1 at this weekend’s Portuguese Round.

Razgatlioglu enters this weekend’s race at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve 42 points adrift of current World Superbike points leader Nicolo Bulega after suffering two non-scores at the opening weekend of the season in Australia back in February.

One of those non-scores was as a result of a rider error from the Turkish star in the Superpole Race, but the second was caused by a technical issue on his BMW.

The ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK team refitted the engine from Race 2 in Australia for Friday’s opening practice in Portugal, after running different engines during the recent two-day test in Portimao, but Razgatlioglu re-entered the pits before setting a lap time in FP1, and never re-emerged from the pits.

Team Principal Shaun Muir told WorldSBK.com during FP2 that the issue was electronic rather than mechanical, and Razgatlioglu was able to complete the afternoon session without issue, finishing fastest overall with strong race pace and as the only rider in the 1:39s.

“I don’t care about FP1 because it’s only Friday,” Razgatlioglu told WorldSBK.com after Friday’s two practice sessions when asked about the potential BMW reliability concerns.

“I believe in my team because everyone is working really hard.

“Okay, I’m not happy when I’m sitting [in the box] but I see that everyone tries their best always – I know this, so I was just waiting for FP2 and we did a very good job.

“If I started riding in FP1, now we [would have found] a very good setup, just we are coming from one session behind.

“But, no problem; this is a technical problem, this is a mechanical sport – I didn’t say anything, I just waited in the box.

“I’m just focused now on tomorrow, in FP3 I need to improve something, and also I need a good lap time for qualifying.”

Razgatlioglu did two 10-lap runs in FP2 to try two of the different rear tyre options available this weekend. His second run was much faster than his first, as he was able to stay consistently in the low-1:40s.

“In FP2 we started immediately because I needed to do a race simulation and also we have two tyres and I need to understand which tyre is better for the race,” he said.

“The first run I tried a different tyre and I did 10 laps, half-race simulation, and after I put the other tyre to understand which one is better.

“It’s not bad. We did a good lap time and also the pace is very good, very strong pace.”

Despite the positivity about his performance, Razgatlioglu was clear that he would like to make some improvements on Saturday ahead of Race 1.

“I need to improve some corners because the hot condition is not easy for everyone because the bike balance is changing, the setup is changing, because you feel less grip and you need to change something on the engine brake side,” he said.

“For me it’s also the same – I am still riding the bike, but I’m not 100 per cent happy in some corners.

“Tomorrow I hope we improve especially the engine brake side, and also the bike balance. I think it looks like we are ready to race.”