Toprak Razgatlioglu out of French WorldSBK after FP2 crash

WorldSBK championship leader Toprak Razgatlioglu is out of this weekend’s WorldSBK French Round after his FP2 crash.

The Turkish rider has been diagnosed with "mild traumatic pneumothorax", per an official WorldSBK communication, resulting in him being declared unfit for the rest of this weekend's French Round at Magny-Cours.

Razgatlioglu crashed during FP2 in braking for the penultimate corner. He lost the front in the left-hand sweeper that leads into the tight right-handed penultimate turn and slid torwards the inside of the right-hander, hitting the inside wall.

It was the Turkish rider's first timed lap of the session after a disrupted first few minutes on Friday afternoon, which saw Razgatlioglu's BMW M1000 RR have its fuel tank changed.

Razgatlioglu was able to walk away from the incident and reported to the medical centre where he was diagnosed with a back contusion.

He was then transported to Moulins Hospital for further assessments, and there the diagnosis of mild traumatic pneumothorax was made.

According to Asthma and Lung UK, "A pneumothorax is a collapsed lung. A pneumothorax happens when air leaks into the pleural cavity," the latter being "the space between the outside of your lung and your ribcage."

Razgatlioglu posted a selfie from his hospital bed with the caption: "I'm fine now, they are doing final checks at the hospital."

His absence from this weekend's racing means his 13-race win streak will end.

But a 92-point championship lead means that Razgatlioglu is guaranteed to remain top of the standings after Race 2 on Sunday.