Toprak Razgatlioglu's hopes of mounting a WorldSBK title fightback against Alvaro Bautista were dealt a serious blow by a rare puncture at Most. Jonathan Rea also finally scored his first win of the season in an eventful weekend:
Yamaha rider Razgatlioglu arrived at the Czech track with the momentum of his win at Imola behind him, and he gained further ground in a wet opening race of the weekend by finishing second behind Jonathan Rea while Bautista struggled to 12th.
“Last year I raced with the SC0 tyre and the race distance was the same, and there was no problem. This time we used the SC1 tyre, which is harder, because Pirelli was worried.”Pirelli’s motorcycle racing director Giorgio Barbier noted in a statement that Rea and the GRT Yamaha of Remy Gardner had also suffered issues with their rear tyres, and pledged to get to the bottom of the issue.
Gardner, who matched his best finish of the season in sixth, said: “I had a similar problem to Toprak, but I was able to finish. There were big holes in the rear tyre. We were lucky that the rear tyre didn’t explode. One more lap and the tyre probably would have exploded.” “I am upset, but not at my team or with myself, just at the tyre that was the problem,” said the 2021 champion. “But I don’t blame Pirelli because they already supplied harder tyres to deal with the problem. I don’t want to say anything bad about Pirelli; I was just unlucky.