WSB: Toprak Razgatlioglu avoids any serious injuries in huge Phillip Island Test highside

Toprak Razgatlioglu has avoided any serious injuries following a huge highside during the WorldSBK pre-season test at Phillip Island.

The reigning champion went down at turn six on only his third flying lap of the day, and was seen limping back to his pit-box in the aftermath. Fortunately for the Turkish rider, he was able to get back out on track in the second session of the day and ended up third overall on the timesheets.

Razgatlioglu completed a total of 34 laps, posting a best lap-time of 1:29.334s onboard his BMW M1000 RR. That time was 0.569s slower than the fastest man on circuit, Nicolo Bulega, whilst Andrea Iannone also finished ahead of Toprak in second.  

“For me, it was a very strange crash,” Razgatlioglu told WorldSBK.com. “We checked the data. I’ve got 39% gas and I highsided because the traction wasn’t working there. I spoke with my electronics guy. He checked why it wasn’t working and he didn’t know. I’m lucky nothing is broken but I feel pain everywhere, especially in my hand.

“In the afternoon, I rode again because I needed to ride to understand the bike and work on setup. At the end of the day, we had good pace. We understood the bike and found some good setup. Tomorrow is another day and I hope we find a good setup because the pace is important here. Now it isn’t bad, but I need a little bit more.

“I saw the picture when I was flying! I immediately tried to cover my hand. The finger isn’t bad; I feel a little bit of pain. I’m still riding the bike; this is the important thing. I think, for the race weekend, I’ll feel much better because we have three or four days. It looks like everything is going positively, only this morning was a little bit strange.”

Elsewhere, Jonathan Rea has been ruled out of this weekend’s season opener at Phillip Island after sustaining multiple fractures to his left foot in a crash at turn two.