Marco Bezzecchi
Fabio Quartararo has applauded Toprak Razgatlioglu after his fellow Yamaha M1 rider scored his first MotoGP points at the United States Grand Prix. Razgatlioglu passed Quartararo en route to 15th in Sunday’s race.
Quartararo has almost always been Yamaha’s lead rider in recent times, but three-time World Superbikes champion Razgatlioglu arguably poses the biggest threat to that dominance.
Razgatlioglu looks increasingly comfortable on a MotoGP bike after initially acknowledging that he found the transition difficult. With Yamaha clearly the slowest manufacturer on the grid, internal bragging rights may be all that’s on offer to their riders this year.
Toprak Razgatlioglu scores his first MotoGP point
Will he score over or under 50 this season?
Fabio Quartararo was ‘really impressed’ by Toprak Razgatlioglu at United States GP
Quartararo was effusive in his praise for Razgatlioglu after the race, admitting that he couldn’t match the Turkish rider’s ‘consistency’. Around 1.5 seconds separated them at the chequered flag.
Razgatlioglu apparently used the ‘smooth’ riding style that was behind his success in World Superbikes to nurse the troublesome Michelin tyres.
That is all the more impressive given his unfamiliarity with the tyres. Razgatlioglu raced with Pirelli rubber in WSBK.
How much responsibility does Fabio Quartararo need to take for Yamaha’s problems?
“He was fast on Saturday, and on Sunday morning he was really fast,” Quartararo said, via Speedweek. “I’m impressed, and I think it’s great for him. The way he rides the bike and how he approaches it is good.”
“My tyre degraded massively in the last five laps. Toprak was a bit more consistent. He rode really smoothly, it was his style, the one we know from the Superbike World Championship. I was really impressed by his performance.”
‘That’s not really good’ – Toprak Razgatlioglu not satisfied despite first points
Razgatlioglu wasn’t inclined to celebrate his P15 finish given that the Yamaha bikes made up the final four in Sunday’s race. He also finished over 25 seconds adrift of race-winner Marco Bezzecchi, equating to a time loss of around 1.25s per lap.
“I’m not entirely happy,” he said, via Speedweek. “Sure, considering the other Yamahas, we did a good job. But on the other hand, we were more than 25 seconds behind. That’s not really good. We need to keep improving.”
The 29-year-old initially struggled to pass Quartararo because he was losing time in the braking zones. In the end, it came down to tyres.
Razgatlioglu learned from following Jack Miller, his teammate, in testing and also says it was valuable to study Quartararo at the Circuit of the Americas.
He said: “At the beginning of the race, I tried to overtake Fabio. But he was very strong in turn 12. I couldn’t understand how he was able to slow the bike down so well. My front tyre kept locking up. I couldn’t brake any later because the bike wasn’t decelerating well.
“I learned a lot. I followed Fabio for many laps and understood a lot better in the process.”
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