Reigning WorldSBK champion Toprak Razgatlioglu has admitted that he enters the Cremona race weekend without a “base set-up” to build on.
Razgatlioglu was forced to miss the inaugural Cremona round last year due to injuries sustained in a crash during practice at Magny-Cours.
He had a mixed weekend in Assen where the Turkish rider claimed fourth, eighth and the win in the Superpole race.
The BMW rider is currently 21 points behind championship protagonist Nicolo Bulega after finishing fourth and eighth in Race 1 and Race 2 at Assen, but his main highlight was winning the Superpole race.
Speaking on Thursday ahead of the race weekend, Razgatlioglu told WorldSBK: “I’m really happy to arrive at Cremona after I missed competing here last year.
“I did test here last year but only ran maybe 40 laps maximum. I know the track, but we don’t have a base set-up.
“I don’t know if the track particularly benefits BMW or me, but I like the track, I only did 35 laps maximum, but this is not a race simulation, I think I will do ok, but I know Ducati is strong here.”
Toprak Razgatlioglu unsure on ‘what to expect’ from BMWs performance
Razgatlioglu admitted that due to his absence last year, he doesn’t know “what to expect” from the bike and its overall performance.
The Turkish rider pointed out that Nicolo Bulega and all Ducati riders are his main competitors once again, but also made it clear that BMW isn’t quite at the sharp end of the grid just yet.
“Assen was tough for [Nicolo] Bulega, having two tech issues is hard, but the second one when he was close to winning the race is disappointing.
“It was good for me for the points, but I am never hoping for him to suffer a technical problem.
“He and the rest of the Ducatis are very strong this year, but we will see at this circuit, if we can improve something on out BMW maybe we can get back to winning, but this has been a very difficult season for me, especially at Assen, after just 11 laps, my rear tyre was destroyed.
“I was trying just to finish with a good position. I hope we see a good result here because last year I didn’t compete here, I don’t know what to expect, because after 10 laps the bike behaves completely differently, we will see tomorrow and hopefully we are near the front.”
