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What just ended in Portimao was a particularly special Round for Toprak Razgatlioglu. With his fourth hat trick in the season, the Turkish rider not only set a new record with 13 consecutive wins, but also achieved his 54th World Superbike success.
"It is special for me to have reached a total of 54 wins in my SBK career. I am very happy, also for my 13 consecutive wins. For me this is also incredible," Toprak admitted at the end of Race 2.
It was a hard-fought victory for the BMW rider, who managed to get the better of Bulega by only 35 thousandths."Race 2 was very difficult because there was a strong wind and the bike was not turning at the last corner. I tried to find a way, but it was impossible. It seems that the Ducati works really well in the wind, while the BMW has to improve," he analyzed, " I knew the Ducatis were very strong in the last corner, but I was ready to fight with them when they came around. I think Alvaro crashed in Turn 5 and when Bulega came in I told myself I was ready to fight for the win and I triumphed again. This is a very special weekend for me and now I look to Magny-Cours, because it is another one of my favorite tracks. I don't know if the BMW will do well there or not, but I think so, because it is a bike that works very well."
Also causing problems for Toprak may have been the left winglet he lost when overtaking Alex Lowes, during which he took the lead in the race.
"I didn't know if I touched Alex, but I got very close and when I looked at the bike at the end of the race I realized that the left wing was broken. Maybe that's why it was not turning at the last corner," said the 27-year-old, who cannot quantify what impact the missing wing had on his race: "I don't know, because at the beginning of the race I broke the left wing on the straight but I didn't feel anything. Maybe it didn't help me though, because the behavior at the last corner completely changed after 5 or 6 laps. I started to lose a lot at that point and nothing changed even trying to change gears, because having only one wing doesn't help with the wind. We have to check the data and aerodynamics, for even if we cannot change anything for this year we can try to do better next year."
It is also difficult for the Turk to explain what happened when Bautista went down, five laps from the chequered flag.
"I realized that he crashed, but I don't know how it happened," he admitted, "After I passed him I went wide. I heard there was a crash, I turned around and I think I saw Bulega. Then I asked at the end of the race and they told me that Alvaro had crashed."
Irrespective of the fall, however, the two-time Spanish champion showed that he is almost back to the level of last season.
"Alvaro is coming back step by step, but I don't understand what has destroyed him this year. Last season he was very strong, while this year, I don't know why, but he didn't start well. I'm waiting for him, because I really like to fight with him," commented Toprak, who hopes to return to fight with the Ducati rider soon.
"I have more fun if I am fighting with him in the race. It's not good if I ride alone, not even for the fans and all the spectators: we all get bored, including me, if there is no battle ," he added, "I remember last year everyone had fun because we fought a lot in every race. Do you know why I don't watch F1? Because I don't have fun, since they all drive around on their own. I think everyone is having fun now, though. This weekend especially and especially in the last race. I pushed really hard, especially in the last lap, because I knew I was losing so much in the last sector and I needed to have some margin before I got to that last part of the track."
Given the superiority shown in this part of the championship, can Razgatlioglu expect to win all the remaining races of the year?
"I don't know, we'll see," he replied, "There have been some very difficult races for me like Phillip Island, but here it was incredible. It was not easy to ride the bike in this wind, but I had to adapt. The Ducati is an easy bike with good electronics, while we maybe needed some tuning to win the race because it was not easy to ride a bike that did not corner."
