{"id":596068,"date":"2026-04-09T17:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T17:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/596068\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T17:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T17:04:10","slug":"quartararo-praises-toprak-razgatlioglus-cota-performance-like-superbike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/596068\/","title":{"rendered":"Quartararo praises Toprak Razgatlioglu\u2019s COTA performance: \u201cLike Superbike\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toprak Razgatlioglu provided a rare highlight for Yamaha during a bleak US MotoGP by finishing as the top M1 rider and scoring his first GP point.<\/p>\n

And it wasn\u2019t a one-off performance.<\/p>\n

The reigning WorldSBK<\/a> champion had qualified just 0.192s behind former world champion Fabio Quartararo<\/a>, then leapt to tenth on the opening lap of the Saturday Sprint.<\/p>\n

Razgatlioglu was still ahead of the Frenchman, in 13th, when he suffered a technical issue on lap 5.<\/p>\n

Returning on Sunday morning, Razgatlioglu turned heads with fifth place in warm-up.<\/p>\n

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The start of the grand prix then saw the Turkish rider initially lose ground from 17th on the grid, before settling in behind Quartararo.<\/p>\n

The pair remained together for most of the race, with Razgatlioglu setting the best Yamaha lap just after mid-distance.<\/p>\n

When Quartararo suffered a \u201cmassive\u201d tyre drop in the closing stages, Razgatlioglu overtook to claim 15th place.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the beginning, I was trying to pass Fabio, but especially in corner 12 [at the end of the back straight] he’s really strong,\u201d Razgatlioglu <\/a>said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand how his bike is stopping! Because my front tyre was always locking on the brake.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut in the end his tyre started to drop, and after passing him I just tried to get in my rhythm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned a lot because I could follow Fabio for many laps.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"US <\/p>\n

US MotoGP Race: Lap Times – Yamahas plus Marco Bezzecchi.<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a0Peter McLaren<\/p>\n

“Like we see in Superbike”<\/p>\n

Although the deficiencies of the Yamaha <\/a>V4 meant they were over 25-seconds from Aprilia race winner Marco Bezzecchi, Quartararo was quick to praise Razgatlioglu\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot just today but all weekend,\u201d Quartararo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cBecause in the Sprint he was also fast, and warm-up he was really fast. So I’m impressed, and I think it’s great for him – the way he rides and the way he’s [progressing].\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting on their late-race duel, the Frenchman explained:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue I had was my tyre dropped massively in the last five laps, and he stayed a bit more consistent.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was riding really smoothly, and his style, like we see in Superbike, more sideways.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I was really impressed by his performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Razgatlioglu\u2019s team-mate Jack Miller also passed Quartararo on the final lap.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toprak Razgatlioglu provided a rare highlight for Yamaha during a bleak US MotoGP by finishing as the top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,16230,806,805,803,804,7188,85,23899,3561],"class_list":{"0":"post-596068","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fabio-quartararo","11":"tag-motor","12":"tag-motor-sports","13":"tag-motosport","14":"tag-motosports","15":"tag-prima-pramac-yamaha","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-toprak-razgatlioglu","18":"tag-yamaha"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}