Toprak Razgatlioglu “was even thinking about pitting” amid Dutch WorldSBK Race 2 struggles

BMW WorldSBK rider Toprak Razgatlioglu says he considered retiring in Race 2 at Assen, such were his tyre wear woes.

The reigning World Superbike Champion won the wet Superpole Race in the morning, but struggled in the dry Race 2, just as in Race 1 when he finished fourth and 17 seconds off the win.

"The Superpole Race was in full wet conditions and I felt great on the bike,” Razgatlioglu said.

“The grip wasn't bad. This was my first win in the wet conditions on a Superbike so I’m really happy about that.”

The Turkish rider said he was thinking about the 21-lap Race 2 from Sunday morning. A different setup and harder tyre selection – front and rear – was used for Sunday’s long race compared to Saturday’s, but ultimately both changes made little positive difference to the result for Razgatlioglu.

“I was already thinking about Race 2, which looked dry, this morning,” he said.

“We tried a different setup but it still didn’t work. We used a different tyre compared to Race 1 because yesterday the rear tyre dropped for the last eight laps.

“Today we used the harder SC0 tyre but in the last laps I had the same problem.

“At one point I was even thinking about coming into the pit box. But then I focused on scoring points. To finish seventh or eighth doesn’t mean much for me but it’s a long championship. We need to improve the bike, and I hope we can come back stronger to fight for wins."

Razgatlioglu’s Sunday difficulties were cancelled out slightly by retirements in both races for points leader Nicolo Bulega, who was leading before his bike stopped in Race 2 and was running second in the Superpole Race before suffering a reported electrical problem.

Bulega’s double-retirement means that, despite his struggles this weekend, Razgatlioglu has emerged from the Dutch Round 21 points behind the Italian, eight points closer than he was at the beginning of the weekend.