Ai Ogura withdrew from the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday morning and was therefore unable to compete in front of his home crowd.
The Japanese Grand Prix was supposed to be unforgettable for Ai OguraHis first home race as a MotoGP rider. Unfortunately, he won't remember it the way he would have liked. Arriving with a hand injury, he suffered throughout the three days and was unable to finish.
Two weeks ago in Misano, the Japanese rider had fallen at very high speed on Sunday, and suffered bone bruises at the base of the bones of the index, middle and ring fingers of his right hand, in addition to inflammatory swelling around the pivot joint of the wrist and swelling in his left foot. He hoped to be back for his national Grand Prix, and was initially reassured on Friday, before seeing the condition of his hand deteriorate over the weekend.
In the sprint race on Saturday, he gave his all to secure the point for ninth place, but on Sunday morning, during the warm-up, the pain proved too great. Ogura has therefore made the difficult decision to withdraw, and will probably have another complicated Grand Prix next weekend in Indonesia.
“There’s not much to say about today. It’s just a shame I had to miss my home Grand Prix. The situation with my hand wasn’t good, so my team and I decided to skip this race to hopefully get me in better shape for the next ones. I’m just disappointed with the weekend, but the riding was pretty good and we saw some potential here. I just want to keep the positives and move on.” did he declare.
