- Toprak Razgatlioglu will undergo shoulder surgery on October 26, ruling him out of the rest of the 2026 MotoGP season.
- The multiple time World Superbike champion highsided in practice at Mandalika, raced through the pain on painkillers, then retired from the Indonesian Grand Prix itself.
- He will miss Phillip Island, a circuit he calls “one of my favourite” from his Superbike career, as Yamaha test rider Augusto Fernandez fills in.
“The Crash Changed Everything”
Toprak Razgatlioglu was still talking about a possible top 10 finish when the shoulder went. In final practice at Mandalika for the Indonesian Grand Prix, his Yamaha M1 highsided and threw him hard enough that he landed and dislocated his right shoulder on impact. Medical staff put it back in place on site, and because this is MotoGP and not a sport that waits for anyone, Razgatlioglu got back on the bike and qualified anyway, then lined up for Saturday’s sprint and finished 19th, exactly where he had started.
“Still I feel pain, but this is normal because the shoulder is out,” he said afterward, with the kind of understatement riders use when they are trying to talk themselves into finishing a race weekend. “When you put it back in, just the biggest problem is you don’t feel the power like before.” He described a 27 lap grand prix ahead of him in brutal heat, with constant direction changes that would hammer the joint over and over. “It’ll be really hard in the hot conditions and many changes of direction where you really feel the shoulder,” he said. “Yesterday I did the race with painkillers, but in the end you feel the pain as well. We will see, 27 laps will be very difficult.”
It was too difficult. Razgatlioglu made it nine laps into the Indonesian Grand Prix before pulling in and retiring. “But the crash changed everything and the weekend is gone,” he said. He flew home to Turkey hoping an MRI would rule out surgery. It did not.
“Worse Than We First Believed”
Razgatlioglu traveled to Milan on October 19 for further scans, and the news that came back ended any hope of racing through it. “Worse than we first believed,” was how he described the diagnosis. Surgery is scheduled for October 26 in Milan, with rehabilitation to follow and no set return date attached. Prima Pramac Yamaha confirmed he is out for the remainder of the 2026 season, starting with this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island, a circuit with real meaning for him from his World Superbike years. “I am extremely disappointed to miss the Australian Grand Prix,” he said, calling it “one of my favourite circuits,” and added a note of sportsmanship aimed at his own teammate ahead of what is expected to be MotoGP’s final event at the venue, wishing Jack Miller well at Miller’s home round.
Team director Gino Borsoi kept the statement short and put the priority where it belonged. “We are very sorry for Toprak,” he said. “His health must come first.” Yamaha test rider Augusto Fernandez will fill the seat at Phillip Island and continue substituting until Razgatlioglu is fit to return.
A Rookie Year That Was Never Going to Be Easy
Razgatlioglu arrived in MotoGP for 2026 as one of the most decorated riders in World Superbike history, a multiple time champion making the jump to Prima Pramac Yamaha, the satellite squad in its second season. The timing was never going to be kind to him. Yamaha has not won a MotoGP race since 2022, and the factory spent this year developing a new V4 engine configuration, a process that takes more than half a season to show results on a stopwatch. Learning a new bike and a new category at the same time as your manufacturer relearns its own engine is not a combination that produces fast results.
By August, Razgatlioglu was the only full time Yamaha rider without a top 10 finish, while teammate Fabio Quartararo had managed fifth at Catalunya and Jack Miller eighth in Hungary. Miller, his Pramac Yamaha teammate, has been generous about him in public even while being honest about the year. “A good character,” Miller called him, saying they “get along great” and that he is “a great guy” with “immense talent on the motorcycle.” But Miller did not sugarcoat the circumstances. “Unfortunately, his rookie year has been developing this bike, so that makes things tough,” he said, adding that Razgatlioglu had not arrived in MotoGP “at the perfect time,” at least not on this particular machine.
An Injury Hit Grid Heading to Phillip Island
Razgatlioglu will not be the only rider missing from the Phillip Island grid. Joan Mir of Honda HRC Castrol was also ruled out the same week, with the team saying medical advice determined “it is still too early for the #36 to return to action.” Mir will not be replaced, leaving Luca Marini as Honda’s only rider at the Australian round. Honda development rider Aleix Espargaro is also headed for surgery in Barcelona after suffering Chronic Exertional Compartment Syndrome during a private test at Sepang, adding a third significant absence to a grid already thinned by injury before a single lap of the weekend has been run.
For Razgatlioglu, the irony sits close to home. He came to MotoGP to prove a champion’s pace translates across categories, and instead spent his debut season chasing a bike that was still being built underneath him, on a path to his first top 10 that a single highside at Mandalika erased along with the rest of his year. Augusto Fernandez takes the M1 to Phillip Island in his place. Razgatlioglu takes a flight to Milan, a surgeon’s table on October 26, and a rehabilitation clock that now decides when his second season actually begins.
Sources:
- Crash.net: Toprak Razgatlioglu explains power problem after Mandalika shoulder injury
- Crash.net: Toprak Razgatlioglu heads for MRI, “hopefully I won’t need surgery”
- MotoGP.com: Toprak Razgatlioglu to miss Phillip Island and the remainder of the 2026 season
- MotoGP.com: Mir to miss the Australian Grand Prix
- Crash.net: Jack Miller on Toprak Razgatlioglu’s unfortunate timing in his rookie MotoGP season
