To Toprak Razgatlıoğlu et Andrea Locatelli, a successful stay along the beaches of Misano would come more in the form of trophies and championship points than sun and ice cream, as the 2023 FIM Superbike World Championship enjoys its fifth stop on the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” this weekend.
Occupying 2nd and 3rd places in the championship respectively, the two riders of the Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK team have a deficit of 69 and 103 points on the leader. Alvaro Bautista.
Toprak Razgatlıoğlu is no stranger to the podium in Italy, with two wins and six podiums to his name at Misano. His objective is therefore clear: To return to victory in one of the two long races and regain points from his main rival in the championship, Alvaro Bautista (Ducati), if only to finish his season with Yamaha in style before moving to the Bavarian manufacturer.
The stage location, Andrea Locatelli, is hoping his Yamaha R1 WorldSBK will be in the lead group from the start of the weekend, to continue his excellent run of performances this season, which, so far, has seen him reach the podium at least once at each round, results which are a notch above his trio of sixth places obtained at Misano in 2022.
In the Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK team boxes there is another person who tasted victory in the WorldSBK category at Misano, the crew chief of the #55 and double FIM Supersport world champion Andrew Pitt. The Australian champion explains that Misano is a special circuit with a very particular asphalt surface that offers enormous grip both in the dry and wet. A technical configuration which allows the motorcycle to change direction well, but also to be stable during heavy braking. This is combined with giving the driver confidence to attack Curvone in fifth gear, the fastest corner of all the circuits on the calendar.
Toprak Razgatlıoğlu : " In testing we did a very good job, especially with the racing simulation. I'm very strong but I know that Bautista is normally very strong in Misano! My goal is to win a long race, not just the short race. I like the Misano circuit and the race pace for me is much better this year, but we will see, because the race is always different from the tests! I try to do my best: This year I am still fighting for the championship, and it seems that it is still possible to be champion. We will see. I will do my best in Misano. If we can win two races, three races, I don't know, we'll see: I'm just trying to win every race. »
Andrea Locatelli : " It's more or less my home race because we race in Italy, even if it's not near Bergamo! It will be interesting to see if, compared to the last two years, we can improve and get good points while fighting for the podium. After the Misano test we understood a lot of things and I hope to arrive ready to be fast from Friday and try to be in the leading group in every session, in order to be in a good position to fight during the races. It's a flat track, with no ups and downs, but the grip level is very high and we just need to find a good way to start on Friday to be able to push during the weekend. Of course, we also hope for good weather, as there have been a lot of devastating rains in the area lately. The aim will be to put on a good show because we have a lot of fans traveling to the event and it's always nice to have that support at home »
