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In the torrid heat of Mandalika, Toprak Razgatlioglu achieved pole in the morning and was convinced he could give battle to Alvaro Bautista on the same track where, as recently as last November, he had beaten him three times. This time however, in the first race of the Indonesian weekend, the Pertamina International Street Circuit provided a completely different outcome.
With Jonathan Rea groping in the dark, the challenge between two of the three protagonists of last season was effectively resolved in just a few laps. Then Bautista changed gears and the rest could do nothing: "At first I didn't want to push too much. I knew Bautista was strong on pace, but I still tried to stay in his slipstream. Before the front tyre gave way - admitted Razgatlioglu - I was surprised, I didn't understand the reason for this drop. Just think that usually my sliders are not very worn out at the end of the races, but today I had to put a lot of strain on my knees because I was constantly losing the front. At that point I could do nothing but get the best possible result".
An all-uphill race for the Turkish rider, who finished second almost five seconds behind the reigning world champion: "Why did I drop back? Simple, the front tyre was finished... in some parts of the track my bike didn't turn ".
A difficult problem which, on the contrary, did not concern today's winner: "Bautista used the SC1, in the softer specification, yet it looked new at the end of the race. While mine, harder, was destroyed. Strange, we are both great brakers".
Razgatlioglu is left licking his wounds and in the meantime, Bautista is breaking away in the championship with four wins out of four: "The Ducati has improved more since 2022. In addition to Bautista, just look at Rinaldi's excellent performances so far. Without forgetting the other Ducati riders, they are all strong".
