The Turkish rider, who last year broke British Jonathan Rea ‘s title streak in the Superbike World Championship riding an R1 of the official Yamaha structure, is this Tuesday at the MotorLand Circuit, in Aragon, carrying out a private test for testing Iwata’s house prototype in MotoGP, as confirmed to Motorsport.com from the team’s press office.
The test, initially, had raised all kinds of speculation about a possible interest from Yamaha to take the Turk to the queen class of motorcycling, but finally, it has been framed as a prize.
“The meaning behind the test was their interest in trying out MotoGP, but it was also a small reward from Yamaha for their championship last year and their continued commitment to the brand for the future,” said Lin Jarvis , the Yamaha boss, on the official WorldSBK website.
With the separation of Yamaha and its satellite team in recent seasons, the refounded RNF, which from next year will compete with Aprilia, the Japanese house has been left without the two satellite places in which there was any possibility of placing Razgatlioglu, who recently expressed his desire to continue in the series-derived motorcycle championship.
Part of the Yamaha test team, of which Cal Crutchlow is the regular rider, has traveled to Aragon to assist the Turkish rider in a full day of training, in which Toprak will not only be able to have a first contact with a MotoGP bike, but also with the Michelin tires with which they compete in the premier class, surely the most advanced compounds that exist for motorcycles.
At the moment, Yamaha has not confirmed which model of the M1 MotoGP machine the Turkish rider is going to ride this Tuesday, if in the latest version worn by the team’s official riders, Fabio Quartararo, leader of the World Championship, and Franco Morbidelli (in addition to Andrea Dovizioso in the satellite RNF ), or the 2020-21 version driven by the young Darryn Binder, Dovi ‘s teammate and the brand’s fourth driver in the premier class.
