Toprak Razgatlioglu “a lucky boy” after suffering a collapsed lung in French WorldSBK FP2

Toprak Razgatlioglu’s crash while braking for the penultimate corner at Magny-Cours in practice for this weekend’s WorldSBK French Round left the Turkish rider diagnosed with a collapsed lung.

As a result of of the injury, Razgatlioglu has been ruled unfit for this weekend’s races, but appears to have come away from the crash without any broken bones.

Such was the severity of Razgatlioglu’s impact with the wall on the inside of the penultimate turn, Eurosport analyst and former Grand Prix racer Danny Webb described Razgatlioglu as a “lucky boy” to only come away with a collapsed lung.

“It’s still a bad injury,” Webb said, “but he’s lucky not to have broken anything around that area as well. He’s a lucky boy, and hopefully he’ll be back stronger than ever at the next round.”

Webb’s fellow Eurosport analyst, former BSB Champion Shane Byrne, agreed with Webb’s assessment.

“He [Razgatlioglu] approaches turn 15, probably doing 160mph there where he’s lost the front, and he’s slid down and collected the barrier there,” Byrne explained.

“Danny [Webb] hit the nail on the head: he’s just so, so lucky. I mean, a collapsed lung, nobody wants one of them, it’s sore, it’s painful. They’re talking about him being back in Cremona [round nine] in two weeks’ time.

“If he’s got away with nothing more than a collapsed lung there then he’s got incredibly lucky.”

Overnight in Magny-Cours, ahead of this morning’s Superpole session that saw Alex Lowes take pole position, padding has been added to the wall where Razgatlioglu impacted.