Pby nature and education Toprak is never very demonstrative and hardly shows his state of mind. This time, however, you can see her happiness in her eyes. He badly wanted to give BMW a hat-trick, the one he achieved last time with Yamaha in 2022 in Mandalika and which gave him the world champion title. Having done it on the Ducati track makes his triumph even sweeter, but as is his style, the Turkish phenomenon honors his adversaries.
How difficult was it to stay close to Bulega in the first laps?
It was very difficult, because he was giving 100% at that moment. Furthermore, I initially lost ground because at turn four on the first lap everyone cut the line towards the inside, to close the way for the others. For this reason I was unable to follow the right line and stay in front, and I lost positions. Then I started pushing hard again, increasing my pace lap after lap. As soon as I realized I had more I went to the front, also to impose my own pace. I really wanted this hat-trick here in Misano.
Do you always think that your motorbike is not yet perfectly suited to your riding style?
My bike today was better than yesterday, especially in terms of front grip. I again chose the SC2 on the front but this time I went faster. But we are only now starting to understand our bike better and find the best set ups even with high temperatures. We are still learning and the important thing, which makes me happy, is that the team never stops working hard, even if we are winning now. This is also why I am confident about the future. Furthermore, there will be tracks that I like very much, such as Donington or Magny Cours.”
Alvaro arrived very detached from you.
First of all, let’s not forget that in Race 2 he started far behind. And then it happens like this to everyone. There are weekends in which everything goes well and others in which you have to limit the damage and bring home as many points as possible.
You’ve given BMW wings and are dominating the SBK championship. Now you are ready for MotoGP.
MotoGP? Everything is different there… If I were to go there I would have to adapt to those bikes, to different tires… for the moment I don’t think about it. I’m having a lot of fun here in Superbike. I’m going strong with BMW and I like to contribute to its development. In the future I don’t know. We will see”.
