Podium Pace from Pata Yamaha Pair on Opening Day in Australia

28-02-2020

Podium Pace from Pata Yamaha Pair on Opening Day in Australia

Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Official Team with Rizla riders Toprak Razgatlıoğlu and Michael van der Mark proved to be fully competitive on the new 2020 Yamaha R1 during the first day of action at the 4.445km long Phillip Island circuit in Australia, with Razgatlıoğlu second overall and van der Mark third fastest.

After testing extensively on Monday and Tuesday of this week the team carried on the good work into the first day of the new FIM Superbike World Championship season, although sitting out the opening session this morning due to adverse weather conditions.

As the FP1 session provided a tricky track surface for all, neither of Yamaha’s Official riders took to the track, simply to make sure that they would be fully ready for the dry conditions of FP2.

Razgatlıoğlu worked on his set-up and finally ended up second fastest over a single lap, after showing real commitment to finding the furthest extremes of his machine’s capabilities near the end of the session.

A new signing to Yamaha this year, he has proven to be fast from the start on the R1 and is now riding with a consistently high pace that should make him a threat to the podium places from the first race of the season on Saturday.

Van der Mark, enjoying the performance improvement from the multiple changes made to his 2020 spec WorldSBK machine, was third overall on day one, making it a positive day for all in the new look Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Official with Rizla team. The Dutch rider finished a short but intense day just 0.051 seconds from his new teammate Razgatlıoğlu.

The Pata Yamaha rider spent most of his time working on tyre options to ensure that both he and Razgatlıoğlu can provide the best possible race-long results on a track that is notorious for being a tough test of grip and durability over race distance.
On Saturday 29 February van der Mark and Razgatlıoğlu will face a final FP3 session, then Superpole qualifying to determine their grid positions and finally Race One itself, to be held over 22 laps of the 4.445km long Phillip Island circuit.

Toprak Razgatlıoğlu

Position: 2nd Time: 1'30.854

We did not ride in the wet and just waited for some dry conditions, which arrived in the afternoon session. We tried some new tyres in a race simulation for about 12 laps and after that we tried for a good lap time. In the first lap I had a big slide, and the best time did not come. In the second lap I made a real push but I was not so happy because I felt a better lap time would be the result. The bike was not turning quite as well as before, but we will see how things are tomorrow. I think we can make a step forward before my first race with Yamaha.

Michael van der Mark

Position: 3rd Time: 1'30.905

In the afternoon we were keen to ride as much as possible because Pirelli brought some different tyre options for the race weekend, so we had to try to do some longer runs. I did some back-to-back tests and we even tried some small electronic stuff. I wasn’t really sure which tyre to use at the start but we are pretty sure now. We are still improving the electronic set-up and I am really happy with the R1 and my best lap, which could have been much better without a mistake in the final corner. Now, it is all about the race pace and it seems to be quite good – I’m looking forward to the first races of the year.

Paul Denning

Team Principal

Obviously Michael and Toprak only did 50 minutes on track today having decided to sit out the wet FP1 but nonetheless we managed to squeeze a lot of work into one short session. Michael ran every combination of slick tyre option that Pirelli has available and really put in the work in terms of understanding the pros and cons of each one. This has added a lot of clarity to the tyre decision. It appears that both the riders will be on the same options for the races. There was not really an opportunity to improve the R1 a big step with regard to settings today, given that the tyre work was the priority today. On both sides we will probably try a couple of minor adjustments tomorrow morning, then try and qualify the bikes as well as possible and get involved with the front runners in the first race of the year tomorrow afternoon.