Toprak Razgatlioglu rolled into the Jerez paddock on Thursday as a rookie MotoGP rider and as the only person on the 2026 entry list who has celebrated two World Championships at the circuit in the past two seasons.
The Turkish star wrapped up his 2024 and 2025 WorldSBK titles on the BMW M 1000 RR at the Andalusian track's traditional season finale, a double achievement that made Jerez the emotional centrepiece of his Superbike career. Now, after three opening MotoGP rounds at circuits he had never raced at before — Buriram, Goiania and COTA — the Pramac Yamaha rider finally arrives at a venue where the layout is already committed to muscle memory.
"I really like Jerez, not only because I enjoy the layout and the feeling of riding here, but also because in the past two years I became World Champion on this track, so I have fantastic memories," Razgatlioglu said on media day.
"I am looking forward to racing here again, which is usually positive for me, but of course we have a new project with the Yamaha bike, so we need to confirm that the good feeling I have with the track can translate to the bike as well."
The catch for the 29-year-old is that his familiarity only runs as deep as the concrete. The Pramac Yamaha M1, in its new V4 configuration, asks for a riding style that he has already described as completely different to anything he mastered in World Superbike.
"I did a test with the GP bike, but it's a completely different riding style to Superbike," Razgatlioglu said before leaving Austin earlier this month. "You need to more keep the speed inside the corner."
"I hope I'm able to adapt quickly to this style, because still in the test I was riding like a Superbike style."
A private Yamaha MotoGP test at Jerez in mid-March gave Razgatlioglu his first live-fire attempt at that adaptation. He came away aware of how far the project still has to travel. At COTA earlier this month, the Turkish rider picked up his first MotoGP point with 15th place, leaving him top Yamaha on the day but also more than 25 seconds behind race winner Marco Bezzecchi, with all four M1s lumped together at the back of the field.
"I've finished in front of Fabio Quartararo, but still, we are together. This is not nice because Yamaha are at the back," he said. "Okay, I'm first Yamaha, but we lose 25 seconds. That's why I'm not happy. I get one point, this is good, but not enough."
Pramac team director Gino Borsoi believes Jerez's tight, twisty layout may play into the new V4's strengths better than COTA's 1.2-kilometre back straight did. Jerez's longest straight measures only 600 metres, which should reduce the raw power deficit the Yamaha still shows on the data sheet.
"Jerez is the first European race of the year and a completely different circuit compared to the three we have raced at so far, with characteristics that could potentially suit the new Yamaha V4 project better," Borsoi said. "We also need to demonstrate over the weekend that we have made the necessary steps to be competitive everywhere."
Monday's official in-season test, held on the same tarmac immediately after Sunday's Grand Prix, gives Yamaha a rare chance to back-test what it learns across the race weekend. For Razgatlioglu, the full arc — familiar corners, new bike and 48 hours of development running tacked onto the back — makes Jerez the single most informative weekend of his MotoGP career so far.
"Yamaha is also pushing hard to improve, but we will see when we are improving a lot," he said. "Maybe in the middle of the year, maybe the end, maybe next year. But we will see."
On his Friday morning debut at a circuit he has previously owned, Razgatlioglu finished outside the top ten in FP1. The answer to whether his WorldSBK memories can meet the M1's modern physics will come by Sunday afternoon — and then again, very carefully, on Monday.
---
*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/toprak-razgatlioglu-jerez-motogp-first-familiar-circuit-yamaha-2026). Visit for full coverage.*