Race 2 at Most was undoubtedly one of the most closely contested and spectacular of the season, even if it deprived us of the show when there were still several laps to go. Alvaro Bautista and Toprak Razgatlioglu engaged in an intense tussle, which only ended with the latter’s crash, which was not initially clear.
It was the Yamaha rider himself who revealed the cause of the small highside that caused him to crash, effectively handing Race 2 into the hands of the reigning world champion. The tire had a blister and was punctured and then burst, betraying him right at the climax and causing him to end the weekend in the gravel. “It’s a real shame about how the race ended, I was having fun in the duel with Bautista because I felt strong and knew I could win. Unfortunately, however, I had blisters on the rear tire and this caused a puncture. Then the tire burst and I ended up on the ground. That’s how it went, there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“Something like this has never happened to me before and I can’t even explain it,” reveals a bewildered Razgatlioglu, who was aiming to close the gap in the championship but is now 74 lengths behind leader Bautista. “I honestly don’t understand what happened. I’m really sorry, because I could have won but I crashed. It’s probably due to the fact that we wear out the tires more than the Ducatis, even if in the past I managed to win by pushing with the SC0″.
The disappointment is enormous above all because Razgatlioglu had the possibility of stopping Bautista’s domination today too: “Today I was calm because I knew what my potential was, especially after the Superpole Race. Alvaro was very strong on the straight, but I knew I was competitive in braking and every time I tried to close and brake better than him. This time I was unlucky”.
“At turn 1 I knew Alvaro would be strong because of the power on the straight, but at the same time I knew what my potential was in braking. Every time I’ve always tried to pull the detachment by staying on the inside. Then he got in, but I immediately went to the outside and passed him again. From that moment on my lead had increased to almost half a second and I was calm, but above all aware of my race. I could have won, but the tire got in the way”, concludes the Yamaha rider.
#SBK #Toprak #betrayed #tire #explosion