“I’m calm about Jerez, I’ll try to enjoy it”
Toprak Razgatlioglu He is on the verge of winning his second World Superbike Championship title.. The Turkish pilot had the opportunity to sing Aliron last weekend in Estoril. He didn’t succeed, but the truth is that He increased his lead ahead of the Jerez tournament, which will close the 2024 championship in the coming days. (from 18 to 20 October, as these are double races in a row).
The BMW driver received win qualifying race 1 in Portugal ahead of his main rival Nicolo Bulega. In Sunday’s Superpole race, he fought with the Italian until the last lap, but in the end he was 3 thousandths behind.this is the closest result in WorldSBK history. And in the second long run he again beat his rival Ducati Aruba.it.
Thus, with 62 points at stake at the tournament in Spain, Razgatlioglu will arrive with 473 points and a 46 (427) lead over Bulega. The Turkish driver’s account is simple: he will become champion on Saturday if he finishes the first race in Jerez with a lead of 37 units.. That is, with transalpine you can lose up to 9 points.
Toprak’s overall victory is not certain, but almost, since he would have to commit a disaster at Jerez to lose the crown. And this circumstance does not put pressure on the Antalya player, but rather calms him down, although he is on the verge of winning a second title after winning the first in 2021.and in a historic first year with the M 1000 RR, in which he achieved a record of consecutive victories and in which he also missed two rounds (France and Cremona) due to injury.
“Everyone is expecting a very busy weekend in Jerez. I’m relaxed because I have a lot of advantages. I’ll try to enjoy it there“, began number 54 after the weekend in Estoril to the official WSBK website. “I remember that in 2021 the championship was decided in the last test. This year it’s the same.”
“Before I got injured, I thought I would become champion with three rounds remaining. After the fall of Magny-Cours everything changed. I’m trying to deal with it, but sometimes it’s not easy. MotorLand Aragón was very difficult, but I did well. Here I needed three wins, but I lost the Superpole race. I don’t stress because I have a very good difference. I just need a good position. I don’t need to win again“he continued.
Speaking about the weekend’s racing, Toprak was left with a thorn in his side about the short race: “I’m very happy, especially with the second race. The Superpole race was a disaster because I had incredible pace but ended up losing.. I focused on the second race because I needed to win again as there were more points at stake. It was a good victory for the championship,” he explained.
On the other hand, his title rival Bulega was proud to have accepted the fight for the general classification before the last test and against an opponent of this nature: “It’s very difficult, but for me to be here now it’s an incredible result, to be able to say that I am still in contention for the championship in the final round of my freshman year. This is something incredible and unexpected. I’m very happy and proud of what I didand what my team has done for me throughout the season,” he concluded.