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Sunday at Donington Park will be a day that will be remembered for a long time inside the Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK team after reigning Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu claimed his first MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship hat-trick at the Prosecco DOC UK Round. On Sunday after Race 2, Team Manager Paul Denning gave his thoughts on the team’s first triple win and how a turnaround from Friday to Saturday led the foundations for Razgatlioglu’s hat-trick.

HAT-TRICK HERO: Denning reacts to Razgatlioglu’s first hat-trick

Razgatlioglu was able to get the holeshot in Race 1 on Saturday to take the lead into Turn 1 on the opening lap, and from there did not look back as he claimed his first full-length race win of 2022. In Sunday’s Tissot Superpole Race, the Turk once again got the holeshot into Turn 1 to lead while in Race 2, Razgatlioglu resisted the challenge from Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) in the first half of the race before pulling away for his third win of the weekend.

Discussing Razgatlioglu’s hat-trick, Denning said: “Thank you to the huge crowd that supported the riders here at Donington Park. It feels like that WorldSBK everywhere is really coming back and it was great to confirm that here in the UK. Toprak has given us a gift this weekend, and also to himself, the first time he’s won all three races and also the first for our team and the first for Yamaha. This is another box we can put a tick against. The most impressive thing for me, about these results, is that at the end of Friday we were in trouble. Sure, we were fast, but Jonathan was much faster; not only on the single lap pace but, more importantly, on the long run pace. We had a quite a big gap and Toprak did not have a good feeling with the bike.”

TURNING THINGS AROUND: how Yamaha went from “in trouble” to three wins

In Friday practice, Razgatlioglu managed to set two 1’27s lap times and ten 1’28s, including a ten-lap stint that ranged from 1’29.2s to 1’27.5s; with most in the mid-to-high 1’28s. In Race 1, Razgatlioglu posted 15 laps in the 1’27s bracket while it was 12 laps in that bracket in Race 2 while he was battling with Rea. It showed a remarkable turnaround in pace from Friday’s runs but one that helped Razgatlioglu on his way to three wins.

Explaining the turnaround in race pace, Denning said. “The team did a great job to give him what he needed on Saturday morning. Motorcycle racing is not only a technical sport, it’s also about confidence. The improvement in the bike also gave Toprak a lot more confidence and he was able to ride in a very natural way, in a very smooth way. Always, like Toprak, at the limit but with everything with the pin just inside the hand grenade and not over the top. This was super impressive on Saturday to dominate the race. The 10 lap races are always really close and to make so many laps in the 26s and win this one was great. The last race was really tough because Jonathan, in the first half, was right there. The conditions were different. The wind was much higher. The temperature on the track was similar but was more humid and the grip was not the same Toprak was still able to adapt and make the result happen. Could not be happier with the weekend, the efforts of the team and the riders.”

“ROBOTIC CONSISTENCY”: the ‘impressive’ pace shown at Donington

Adding about the consistency of Razgatlioglu, Denning said: “When you see the shapes that Toprak’s bike is in, on corner entry, corner exit, the rear wheel up a metre in the air, it seems impossible that he’s consistent, but the lap time shows every lap like a robotic consistency. When a rider is in this frame of mind, it’s something so impressive because this track is so physical at Donington Park with high speed changes of direction, a lot of bike instability, big bumps, slow speed stopping. It’s really hard on the arms and the strength of the riders.”

TITLE TWISTS: was the UK Round a turning point in the Championship fight?

Razgatlioglu came into the UK Round 79 points down on Championship leader Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) but results across the three races, including a non-score for Bautista in Race 1 following a crash, means that deficit was almost halved in the UK with the reigning Champion 43 points back. The gap from Bautista to Rea in second was also halved over the UK Round, falling from 36 to 17 points.

Talking about whether this might have been a turning point of the season, Denning said: “I think Misano was also a turning point on Sunday to improve the performance so much and finally win. Winning is like a drug. Toprak struggled to do his dope test on Sunday because he was so dehydrated after 23 laps, I think after two hours, finally, and four litres of water but the only drug that’s in his system is trying to win. It’s something very addictive and I think he feels, and more importantly believes now, the package is capable of doing it. Magny-Cours, apart from Donington, is probably his favourite circuit. Most he was strong last year. It won’t be easy, but I think we’re in a better position to try and win than before this weekend.”

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