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Ducati's Alvaro Bautista spoke to motorsport.com about Toprak Razgatlioglu, who is increasingly rumored to be switching teams. Bautista believes that this had a big impact on the Turk. “I think for sure the first tracks for him were not the best tracks,” he said. “But also I think, I don't know if it's true or not, but all the rumours that maybe he will go to Motogp next year and the possibility to go or not, maybe for him [they were a distraction]. “Even if he didn't think that he didn't think about that, but he has [that] in mind. “Now there is no more chance to go next year, he's like I have to be focused on this and then push. “But also last year in Donington he was very very strong, he won two races so I think it's a track that he likes.
But I think now he will be more focused and more strong”.
Paul Denning on Toprak Razgatlioglu
Yamaha's WSBK team manager Paul Denning denied those who said that Toprak started the season very badly. “Everybody has said that Toprak has had a difficult start to the year,” Denning told Motorsport.com's German edition.
“Okay, you always prefer to win all the races, but it's not really the case. When you look at the results at Aragon, Assen, Estoril, compared to a year ago, the laptimes are so much faster, our positions in the races are in fact better this year.
Okay, it would have been nice to win two races at Estoril [this year] where he made that big save in the Superpole race [and dropped to second] and Alvaro in the long race passed him just before the flag, but it is what it is.
But in terms of performance throughout the whole season we've been a lot stronger than last year but those other two guys [Bautista and Rea] have come with us and done an amazing job. I'm impressed by the step Jonathan has taken this year and his team and the evolution of the bike.
Alvaro has some advantages but he is using all the tools he has very, very well indeed and he seems to be in a calmer frame of mind than in the past."