Toprak tastes MotoGP with Yamaha Aragon outing

WorldSBK Champion Toprak Razgatlıoglu enjoyed his first taste of the Yamaha MotoGP YZR-M1 on Tuesday with a one-day test at Motorland Aragon.

Fresh from his first victory of the season at Misano, the Turkish star finally got his hands on the MotoGP machine for 40 ‘positive’ but very hot laps at the Spanish circuit with Britain’s Cal Crutchlow in the box as a benchmark.

“This was my first day on the Yamaha M1 MotoGP bike and it felt completely different to my R1,” Razgatlioglu confirmed after the excitement of the day.

“More horsepower, different electronics, seamless gearbox, all of which is completely new for me. With every lap I learned more, because after the world superbike it’s not so easy to adapt to the MotoGP machine.”

The 25-year-old began the day with a 12-lap run to build up an understanding of the bike and the Michelin tyres, completing shorter runs thereafter, as the Yamaha MotoGP test team made set-up adjustments based on his feedback and analysis of the data.

“Fortunately, I had Cal Crutchlow on hand to offer advice and he was able to help me a lot,” he continued. “The bike feels good, especially on the straight where it’s very fast, and it was interesting to experience the carbon brakes.

“The conditions were really hot today, so we stuck to doing five or six lap runs only, after the initial run of 12 laps to get a first feeling for the bike. When I watch the MotoGP bikes on television here at Aragon you can see it is a bit bumpy, and I can feel it here today. It’s not so bad, you have to keep the gas open to ride through the bumps, because if you close then it becomes more unstable.

“Overall, a very positive test, even if it was cut short by rain this afternoon, which meant I didn’t get quite as many laps