RiderTua.com – In his debut with BMW, Toprak Razgatlioglu managed to achieve his first podium at Phillip Island (finished 3rd in the superpole race). And for the Bavarian manufacturer, overall it was a positive start to the 2024 World Superbike Championship.
This shows that BMW has taken a good step forward. While last year, Scott Redding’s 9th place finish was the best individual result. In last weekend’s race in Australia, they entered the top 9 6 times. And currently he has scored 26 points in the manufacturer’s standings, whereas in 2023 it was only 11 points.
BMW Boss: Better start to the season than before, especially with Toprak Razgatlioglu
Toprak Razgatlioglu
Motorsport director Marc Bongers said, “The fact is that we have always done well in every session, especially with Toprak. There was a small mistake in the first race which saw us drop from 4th to 5th. Mickey put in a strong performance, up from 16th to 7th, and he lost a bit on Toprak. Garrett and Scott also finished in the top 10.”
During the Superpole race, Toprak showed an extraordinary race and finished in 3rd position. Unfortunately it’s difficult for the other 3 riders, when we come back from being so far behind with this level of performance. The damage to Toprak’s motorbike in race 2 really bothered him. “Now we have to analyze what caused it. Mickey and Garrett were again able to achieve good results by finishing in 8th and 9th place, only a few seconds away from the winner.”
“Overall, our performance was clearly better than in previous years. But it is clear that Phillip Island is very special and the true balance of power will only become clearer after the races in Barcelona and Assen. We also know this at BMW,” he said. .
Now BMW has to wait for the first European series to really show BMW’s position. “But we haven’t been this good on the Phillip Island track for a long time. So the conclusion is, we are satisfied,” concluded Marc.
