Regardless of a mid-race problem from Nicolo Brega, Toprak Razgatlioglu was in a position to experience “very relaxed” on the finish of the 20-lap race one at Estoril World SBK.
On the weekend’s opening World Superbike race in Estoril, Razgatlioglu took the lead from the fourth lap, however the hole between him and Brega, which had been two seconds aside for a lot of laps, narrowed to 0.7 seconds at one level, and widened to 1.9 seconds on the end.
Razgatlioglu defined that he anticipated a battle when he noticed Brega approaching, however was finally in a position to chill out once more and return to his personal tempo.
“I am very blissful, however I used to be pushing very laborious within the race, particularly to start with,” Toprak Razgatlioglu advised WorldSBK.com after Race 1 in Estoril.
“I felt like every little thing was going properly, however within the center Nicolo (Bulega) began chasing me. I at all times accepted that the Ducati had extra grip within the scorching circumstances.
“When he began grabbing me, I stated I used to be able to combat.
“He stopped in 0.7 seconds.
“He was pushing laborious once more in the previous couple of laps and once I noticed the 1.2 seconds on the pit board I knew he was having grip points.
“The final couple of laps I used to be using very relaxed and attempting to not make any errors on the bike.
“We lastly received the race. We acquired some good factors in the direction of the championship, however tomorrow goes to be a troublesome race.”
Razgatlioglu’s victory means he now has a 41-point lead over Brega within the standings.
This implies he has an opportunity to win the championship in Race 2 tomorrow, however for Race 2 to be the primary ‘match level’ within the race for the 2025 title, the BMW rider should first end the Superpole race with not less than a 37-point lead over Brega.
Nevertheless, as he has insisted all season, Razgatlioglu insists that his concentrate on Sunday at Estoril will probably be on profitable the race, simply because it was on Saturday.
“I am simply centered on profitable races,” he stated.
“For half the race (Race 1) I’m working first, however I additionally say {that a} podium is nice sufficient.
“I made a number of errors as a result of I misplaced the entrance and nearly crashed.
“My solely focus was profitable the race.
“Now we have two extra laborious races tomorrow. If we are able to enhance in some corners, we’ll come again even stronger tomorrow.”
