Reigning WorldSBK champion Toprak Razgatlioglu has confirmed he is in the back after the opening day of WorldSBK in the Netherlands this weekend.
The Turkish rider, who won all three world superbike races in Portugal two weeks ago and race two at Assen last year, was the third fastest and last rider at 1:33S on Friday in the Dutch round this year, but after the first two sessions of the weekend, he appealed to his “not perfect” feeling at the M1000 RR.
“I didn’t start completely because I feel like I’m not perfect on a bike, but I’m always trying to do my best,” Razgatlioglu told Worldsbk.com after Assen’s FP2.
“The bike is not working well, so you need to try and improve it, and it doesn’t help when you’re on a bike.
“We have another session before the qualifying and the race, and we will try another setup for tomorrow.
“I hope we can improve the bike because we need help from the bike.”
Razgatlioglu was optimistic about his chances at least in the race if the improvements he was looking for could be found overnight by his BMW team, but it appears he effectively wrote down his super pole hopes.
“The most important thing for me is tomorrow morning,” he said.
“If we improve our bikes, I think we’ll be enjoying ourselves on bikes.
“After that, I’m focused on qualifying, and I need good lap times for my position.
“This weekend, I’m focusing on winning races because I don’t know in qualifying whether we’re a good job or not because we don’t feel like last year.
“I’m just focusing on the race, I’m just looking at the pace of the race. I hope they find a good setup. I think I’m fighting again for a race victory. This is my goal for the weekend.