It is a second place that stings the one with which Toprak Razgatlioglu filed the weekend at Estoril away in the archives. The defeat in Race 2 did not go down well with the championship leader, who appeared before reporters with a bit of a grudge. Not so much because of the 5 points lost to Nicolò Bulega, who is chasing him in the World Championship 39 points behind, but more because he is convinced that he was deliberately slowed down at the start of the race by some of his rivals.
"Some riders don't respect the championship. I congratulate Iannone, for being penalized and doing a good job. I think everyone in Ducati applauded and congratulated him," he said sarcastically. "I was surprised that he tried to pass me after I passed him. I realized later that he was trying to battle with me even though he had been penalized for riding a Ducati. But it wasn't just him. There were also other riders like Locatelli, who was in the middle of Turn 9. That is also a very strange thing, because that wasn't his line: usually you stay more to the right. He was in the middle, however, and I had to go to the inside to try to pass him."
Having lost ground early in the race, the 28-year-old lost any chance of being able to fight for victory.
"Right now I am in a fight with Nicolò. In 2019 in particular, I always paid respect to Rea and Bautista, who were fighting for the championship. I expected something like that (also from the others), but I think they are not thinking about the championship, but only about showing off. This is not a good thing and in the first few laps I was really angry. After Nicolò had pulled out a little bit of a gap, I got a little bit closer to him. But then my rear tyre started to drop, because I had pushed too hard at the beginning," he recounted, "I started to have some strange blockages at the rear, because of the tyre degradation and the engine brake that was no longer working stably. I started to have a lot of vibration and a lot of sliding coming out of corners. I had a big drop in the last six or seven laps, and I told myself it was impossible to win the race today. So, I focused on second position and scoring important points for the championship. Now I'm thinking about Jerez. It looks like I won't be able to endthe game in Race 1, but at the end of the Superpole Race, if everything goes well. In any case, I will try to do my best there again."
What changed today compared to yesterday, for example, when Toprak quickly made up the ground lost at the start?
"I tried not to push too hard on the rear tyre at the beginning, but the other riders were riding like crazy in the first few laps. The way they were riding, they seemed to think they were going to win the race in the first few laps. Then I tried to pass them, but they weren't following the right lines. I'm not mad about the overtaking, but because in the first few laps they were tackling the corners by staying in the middle, instead of following the normal line," he explained, "I also made a mistake trying to pass them by going inside."
Surprised by the aggressiveness of Iannone and his rivals, the defending champion believes that the Abruzzo rider wouldn't have behaved the same way if Bulega had been in his place.
"In my opinion, no, because they are part of the same family," he admitted, "Bautista? He didn't behave like that. He rode as usual. It was Iannone, who behaved strangely after taking the penalty. That's why I'm angry. I think he knew about the penalty from the dashboard that Ducati uses."
What annoyed the BMW rider, in addition to the attitude of his opponents, was the fact that the duels at the beginning of the race took away his chance to be able to fight for that hat trick of wins that was his goal for the weekend.
"If I had not been fighting with others in the early laps maybe I would have stayed with Nicolò, who was very strong in these last races. Maybe I would not have destroyed the rear tyre, because I would have ridden more calmly. I don't know who would have won at the end of the race, but I would have fought with him instead of fighting with them," he underlined.
Despite the anger at how the weekend ended, El Turco moved another step closer to winning his third World Championship. "We are still thinking about how to celebrate, we don't know yet if we will do something special. We'll see," he concluded.