Last weekend in Portugal, on sunday, Alvaro Bautista and Toprak Razgatlioglu starred one of the greatest battles of the World Superbike Championship so far and it was so close that even made the spaniard to think that he might crash if the turkish rider did too. A crazy duel that ended up with the Ducati rider to win right at the end.
The #1 spoke of the fierce battle he had with his Yamaha rival: ‘Basically, Toprak had nothing to lose and he tried everything. Sometimes when I was behind, I tried for a couple of laps to not stay so close to him to cool down the front tyre. When you are too close, especially in the flowing section, the temperature comes up and you lose a bit of performance, so I wanted some space. I tried to close the doors a lot but he always put the bike inside! It’s normal, I expected this from him. It was great because we saw a Toprak without anything more than that’.
It was such a close race and with both so close to each other than many times, he added: ‘He did his best in every moment and many times, I thought: «Shit, if he crashes, I’ll go down with him». He entered on the limit and almost every time, I had to pick the bike up otherwise we’d touch. I enjoyed it; I didn’t just stay in second until the end or try and get points for the title. I wanted to fight with him and beat him. It was like a normal race, not a race that can decide a lot of things’.
Bautista also tried to predict the #54’s moves to take the lead and ultimately win: ‘In Spain, we say: «The devil knows more for being old than for being the devil». I expected this move from Toprak, he knew I’d try on the last corner on the inside and already, in the morning, I was on the outside but he was using all the kerbs and I changed the line! In Race 2, I kept the outside because I thought maybe he’ll close the corner. Instead, I saw him not open more the gas more to stay inside, so then I said: «He’ll close the corner». So, I went full throttle with the bike spinning a lot and I can carry more speed exiting on the outside’.