Toprak Razgatlioglu certainly left the Jerez track after two days of testing counting for the 2023 WSBK off-season with the absolute best time, but these next few nights will not be peaceful for all that. It won't be the fault of his Yamaha, which has been grafted with a new swinging arm which gives him satisfaction. No. On the other hand, it is his leg that will continue to struggle for a while after a heavy fall from which he thought he would recover with a fracture. She was not diagnosed and the Turk continued his tests. But the pain is excruciating according to the 2021 World Champion of the specialty reserved for machines from the series…
Officially, the pilot of 26 years old did well, but we will still have to wait a few days before validating the first reassuring diagnosis. Indeed, this leg affected during a fall on the second day of the Jerez tests, shortly before the lunch break, is not really forgotten, a pain continuing to worry a Toprak Razgatlioglu who recounts his misadventure thus: « I was very fast during the fall…I don't fall often, but when I fall, I fall » he begins laconically with this mention all the same: “ I braked and fell, it wasn't normal ».
The rest went like this: “ the motorcycle hit me when I fell and my lower left leg hurts. I hope nothing is broken. At first I was sure my leg was broken, I was in incredible pain. I then tried to move my leg and was able to walk again. I just had the wound cleaned and then left ". At the end of the session, the official Yamaha added : " I'm sure the pain will come at night ».
Toprak Razgatlioglu: “I braked and fell, it wasn't normal"
In the meantime, and despite this far from trivial accident, the protégé of Kenan Sofuoglu took the lead again to set the best time. Not bad, and proof of a certain strength of character since the performance of choice followed a fall which we will recall that he evaluated it thus on speedweek : “I braked and I fell, it wasn’t normal "...
But the work continued, and in particular on this famous swinging arm: “ this allows us to have more grip and therefore we can accelerate better out of corners ". The novelty worked and that's very good news, because better acceleration was exactly what he asked the team to do.
Toprak ends with a first assessment of the forces present: “ I see the results and it's like last year. I'm with Johnny and Alvaro, they are all very close. It's not easy to say how it will go, because the season hasn't started yet. Petrucci and Rinaldi look strong. NOW, everyone looks strong, even Aegerter and Gardner. And Locatelli also made a big improvement ". In WSBK too we shouldn't be bored this year.
Rankings from the second day of Superbike testing in Jerez:
