Torpak makes Yamaha Taste Victory!

Before the season’s fifth race at the Leicestershire circuit, Yamaha rider Razgatlioglu was fighting an uphill battle to stay in the title hunt after falling 79 points behind Alvaro Bautista of Ducati.

In addition to finding it difficult to compete with Bautista and Jonathan Rea for the 2021 championship, Razgatlioglu’s first victory of the year didn’t come until the Superpole event in Misano last month.

However, the 25-year-old last weekend completely dominated the action at Donington, winning each of the three races to secure a perfect score of 62 points, and put his championship challenge back on track.

Since the WSBK changed to a three-race format each weekend in 2019, it was Razgatlioglu’s first career treble. The Yamaha rider felt he had rediscovered the speed that allowed him to win his first championship the previous year.

For the first two weekend races, starting third on the grid, Razgatlioglu used the identical strategy of jumping the Kawasaki team of Alex Lowes and Rea at the start before establishing an early lead to stave off a challenge.

In the opening circuits of the last full-distance race on Sunday, Rea managed to pass him twice momentarily, but Razgatlioglu was able to pass him back right away on each occasion, allowing him to coast to a one-second triumph over Bautista, who eventually passed Rea for a second.