Toprak Razgatlioglu scored a point at the German Grand Prix on Sunday, his third return in four races, but won’t be satisfied with his performance.
After all, Razgatlioglu effectively finished last and benefited from five retirements, as well as the absence of the injured Fermin Aldeguer and Marco Bezzecchi.
He crossed the line 38 seconds behind race winner Marc Marquez and 6.5 seconds adrift of Alex Rins on the nearest Yamaha.
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Cal Crutchlow’s overtake on Toprak Razgatlioglu at German Grand Prix was damning
Razgatlioglu qualified 18th, seven-tenths off the time he needed to join teammate Jack Miller and factory rider Fabio Quartararo in Q2, and finished 17th in the Sprint.
The Turkish rider hasn’t raced at the Sachsenring since 2014 and is lacking in fitness. He also reported after the Sprint that he was struggling to manage the tyres.
On lap 15 of the main race, Razgatlioglu was passed by LCR stand-in Cal Crutchlow, arguably the lowest moment of his MotoGP career so far.
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Crutchlow is a MotoGP race winner with 184 starts in the premier class, but he’s also 40 years old and hasn’t raced full-time since the 2020 season. It’s no surprise that he has consistently been the slowest rider since he stepped in to cover for Johann Zarco, sometimes over a second off.
The battle continued and Crutchlow eventually crashed, but Pramac and Yamaha must have been wincing when they saw the lap-15 move on the world feed broadcast.
- READ MORE: Sylvain Guintoli spots something strange on Toprak Razgatlioglu’s Yamaha at the German Grand Prix
Even if there’s no reason to be concerned long-term at this stage, Razgatlioglu shouldn’t be in this position so far into his rookie season. While he has occasionally shown promise, including a Q2 appearance in his second race and a P11 finish in Hungary, he isn’t yet on a consistent upward trajectory.
Some feel that Yamaha should have promoted Razgatlioglu straight to the factory team for 2027 rather than keeping him at the satellite squad, but he simply hasn’t done enough to justify such a promotion.
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