Toprak Achieves Historical Milestones, Equals Jonathan Rea And Norel Haga's Achievements

Pata Yamaha Prometeon rider Toprak Razgatlioglu reaches 100 podiums at WSBK. (Photo: Twitter/@PataYamahaWSBK)

JAKARTA - Italian Pata Yamaha Prometeeon Razgatlioglu finished second in Race 1 World Superbike (WSBK) at the Imola Circuit, Saturday, July 15, local time. Toprak was only 3.672 seconds adrift of the leader of Race 1 this time, Alvaro Bautista (Aruba It Ducati).

This is Toprak's 100th podium in his career at WSBK. This achievement also extends Toprak's impressive record of always finishing in the top three 16 times.

The Turkish racer is also the sixth rider to reach this 100 podium milestone after Jonathan Rea, Troy Corser, Noryuki Haga, Tom Sykes and Carl Fogarty.

"I've been waiting for my 100 wins! Race 1 is not a bad race. I'm not 100 percent happy because I finished the race in second place, because my main goal is to win this competition," Toprak said, quoted from Antara.

"In Race 1, I feel good, but when the tire conditions start to go down, I see Ducati still has a very good acceleration. I try to keep fighting with him, but that's not enough," he added.

On the other hand, Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing) secured a solid third place, adding to the 252 podium collection throughout his career in the WSBK class. He was 7.847 seconds adrift of Bautista.

"This is a very challenging race! It's one of the races where I didn't expect to get on the podium, even though it's always been my target in every game," said Rea.

The Irish racer has a record of winning 13 podiums in a row at Imola and he hopes to win his first win in 2023 and improve his starting position for Race 2 through the Superpole session on Sunday (16/7) local time.

"We have some great data to move tomorrow and for the Superpole Race, I feel we can be quite competitive; we need to start well and see where our level is," said Rea.

"Usually in warmer conditions, we have a lot of arrangements on the front (motor) and this requires tougher tires. It looks like we're going in the right direction, but that's still not enough. We have to keep working in our weaker areas and try to improve it," he added.