GREG HAINES
Razgatlioglu secures Misano triple to lead World Superbike standings. But will he be heading over to MotoGP next year?
INSIGHT
Finding the stories behind the headlines at Misano WSBK
Toprak Razgatlioglu battered his rivals into submission with a terrific treble World Superbike victory at Misano delivered in the most controlling fashion imaginable – leaving Ducati scratching their heads and crawling back to the drawing board.
Furthermore, in a dramatic development, it emerges that the BMW rider has the chance of leaving the series early to pursue a MotoGP dream next season.
Not since Marco Melandri in 2012 have BMW topped the championship standings in the World Superbike Championship. That all changed on Saturday as Toprak marched to the top courtesy of his Race 1 win from pole position, also marking the first time the affable rider has led the championship himself since winning for Yamaha in 2021.
It is rare for Toprak to big up his chances but, prior to Misano, he went public in stating a genuine possibility of a treble win as well as this year’s title. He duly won both Sunday races too, confirming his third career treble despite carrying a shoulder injury following a supermoto training accident in Turkey some days earlier.
Worryingly for opponents, Razgatlioglu started this season with an initial BMW base setup and only now is he really honing the M1000RR to his own style, wiping the floor with his fellow other BMW riders in the process.
In perfect weather on the Adriatic coast of Italy, Toprak and crew chief Phil Marron’s performance stunned a crowd of close to 80,000 over the course of the weekend. It had been a two-month break since Assen and shapes things up nicely ahead of the next races at Donington Park in the middle of July. Ominously for the rest, Razgatlioglu achieved the treble there last year… and he’ll only be quicker this time with a more powerful bike which since the season began is enjoying improved engine braking and a new swingarm. BMW’s massive investment into their test team is paying off. Toprak’s own test at Misano in the run-up to the event helped too. The success was even more special considering a rare Toprak error in Friday practice, crashing at the last corner and losing half of the afternoon session.
“As I said before the weekend, the triple was my target,” confirmed Toprak who, ever since his Superstock 600 days a decade ago, only ever makes statements he truly believes are possible. He also made the inspired decision to use Pirelli’s harder tyre in the pair of long races, enabling better performance over time despite, in theory, having less grip and stability early on. “After Saturday, we made changes which allowed me to push the front more and have more grip. Now people are starting to believe the po
