WorldSBK Argentina: Saturday binner to Sunday winner for Razgatlioglu

Maybe Jonathan Rea would have won the Sunday WorldSBK Superpole race at San Juan but for a false neutral while leading, but that honour went to Toprak Razgatlioglou, a Saturday binner and Sunday winner.

His pure determination to win is the building block all his other unique championship talents are layered on, and he needed all of it to beat double race winner Alvaro Bautista just once.

It was nothing less than a career cathartic as he held of Bautista so soon after making his first personal mistake in ages. “Yesterday the big mistake for me,” said Toprak on Sunday at a very hot San Juan. “I need also to come back again strong. The Superpole race for me was unbelievable because I tried my best. I need to win again. I’m really happy for this. Race two also I need to keep fighting for the good position.

“I know Alvaro was very strong in the race, but I tried my best again. I was waiting a little bit for Alvaro’s tyre to drop, but this is not possible because he’s not eating the tyre, just he’s really fast in the straight. 03, 04. But anyway, keep fighting again. We take good points for the championship. Always fighting for the win. Today again I was fighting for the win, but finished the race in P2. But, anyway, today we are strong.”

When asked why Bautista’s bike does not eat the tyres so much, Toprak said, “Because he is less kilos and also has very big advantage in the straight. He doesn’t need the corner pushing a lot, in my opinion.”

Razgatlioglu’s rebuild of his motivation from the most down he seemed after a race on Saturday was not all done by him. “The team always believes in me,” said Razgatlioglu. “Last night my motivation was really down, but also thanks to the team because they were really helping for my