Reigning Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) claimed a third-place finish in Race 1 at the TT Circuit Assen as racing commenced for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship during the Motul Dutch Round. It means the reigning Champion has now taken four podium places from the first four races of the season, all in third place.

Razgatlioglu started Saturday’s action with a record-breaking Tissot Superpole session as he posted a lap time of 1’32.934s to claim his third consecutive pole position in WorldSBK and the sixth of his career, beating Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK duo Alex Lowes and Jonathan Rea to pole position.

In Race 1, the reigning Champion got a flying start from pole position but soon found himself under attack from Rea. The six-time Champion passed his rival on track on the third lap of the race and remained there for several laps before Razgatlioglu responded to take the lead; both passes coming into the final chicane at the iconic Dutch venue. Rea, on Lap 16, passed Razgatlioglu for the lead of the race into Turn 1 before Razgatlioglu started defending from Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati).  Bautista, starting from fifth, moved up the order to claim second place from Razgatlioglu.

Reacting to Race 1, Razgatlioglu said: “I tried my best but, in the race, I was feeling some tyre problems. Also, I tried fighting. Third position finish. We are again on the podium; we take good points for the Championship. We are trying our best today. I need now to win. I’m always in third position, but for me this isn’t enough. Tomorrow I will fight for the win again. It won’t be easy because everybody is very fast, Alvaro and Jonny are very fast.”

In his title-winning year last season, Razgatlioglu did not claim victory until the ninth race of the season when he won Race 2 at the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli”, before going on to take 13 victories and the title. So far in 2022, Razgatlioglu has only finished third in races and he will be looking to add to his win count as soon as possible in 2022.

Discussing how he plans to end the win drought, Razgatlioglu said: “Tomorrow, I will change the plan for the race. In this race, I followed Jonny and maybe tomorrow I ride alone. I don’t know, we will see.”

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