As the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship prepares for a second January test, this time at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve, Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) is aiming for his first day on the bike in 2025. A finger injury sustained in training meant he missed the Jerez test last week but ‘El Turco’ is on site in Portugal and hoping to test at Portimao on the new M 1000 RR.

INJURY UPDATE: “It’s getting better every day… the important thing is how I’m feeling on the brakes”

The first signs of Razgatlioglu’s injury came during the BMW launch in Berlin and the #1 spoke ahead of the Portimao test about how his hand is feeling. He stated: “It’s not bad, getting better every day but a little slowly. After the big injury, I had an operation and only 20 or 21 days ago, but it’s still new. I need to ride the bike because I need to try the new bike and we need to improve. In general, I’m very happy to come back to the circuit again. I’m still not 100% but I hope I’m feeling good on the bike and riding like real Toprak. The most important thing is how I’m feeling on the brakes because I’m always hard braking. We’ll see how it’s feeling with the broken finger. The team’s very happy when I come back, and I hope we start strongly. The doctors say after three months, you’ll be feeling like normal, but my biggest target at Phillip Island is to move my feeling almost 90%, because this is very important. Now, the feeling doesn’t move like the old style and if I’m like it’s moving a lot, this is perfect for me.”

NEW GLOVES FOR PORTIMAO: two designs to help with the injury

With Razgatlioglu carrying an injury, his BMW team have brought two different gloves to Portimao that will help assist him under braking. One puts two fingers together in one in the glove, while the other keeps them all separate but is slightly bigger for the injured finger. Discussing his approach for the test and the gloves, Razgatlioglu said: “Before Phillip Island, this is the last test. I need to ride the bike to understand the balance as it’s a new bike. Mickey’s also riding the new bike, but I need to ride, the team are also waiting for my comments. I hope I’m not feeling any pain on the bike. This is good as we’ll start the test on the bike, and this is important for me to find some setup maybe or improve for Phillip Island. Everyone is here which is good, but I don’t need the risk; I just need to understand the bike because my finger still isn’t 100%. I don’t need to crash; this is the important thing! I have two different special gloves. In the morning I’ll start to try, and I hope they help. One glove is for two fingers together for braking, one is like normal just one finger is big.”

POST-TEST RECOVERY: immediately heading back to Turkey

With a bit of time between the Portimao test and the Official Test at Phillip Island, the two-time WorldSBK Champion provided some details about his recovery plan to be as close to full fitness as possible for Australia – including how he’ll have a 130 kilometre drive every day to go to physio. He said: “After the test, I’ll go back to Turkey and immediately go to the physio. The physio is Istanbul, I live in Sakarya. It’s 130km every day I go to Istanbul! It’s for my finger and it’s a very important finger, the braking finger. Every day, I go to Istanbul and go back home.”

DAY 1 SUMMED UP: back on top using the race tyre…

Razgatlioglu finished the day in first place with a1’40.650s with four riders separated by just 0.099s at the end of a frantic day. ‘El Turco’ completed more than 50 laps on Day 1 as he made his comeback from a broken finger, with the injury seemingly not impacted him throughout the day which had restricted running in the morning due to previous rain on track before it dried up for the afternoon.

Discussing his day, the two-time Champion said: “I didn’t expect the finger to be like this, because I immediately started very fast. I felt a little bit of pain but not a lot. I used hard braking and everything was good; not like before, but it’s getting better. I was focused on my bike because we tried new parts and setup. It wasn’t a bad day for me. We tried many things. It was better than expected because, on the last run, I used the race tyre and not the SCQ tyre. This is the race tyre lap time and I think the other riders used the SCQ tyre. Not just one lap, but after ten laps, we’re very strong.”

Relive Razgatlioglu’s 2024 title success by watching The Greatest Stunt and see how his title defence unfolds using the WorldSBK VideoPass!