Unhappy with his performance at the Grand Prix MotoGP from Qatar, Ai Ogura arrived in Jerez with the firm desire to make people forget their modest 15th place in Lusail while the amazing rookie had accustomed us to much better since the start of the season.
But the technical and winding Andalusian circuit did not exactly prove easy to tame for the Trackhouse MotoGP Team rider who, for once, even finished the Practice just behind his teammate, in 17th position.
“It’s been quite a difficult day for me. Since this morning, I haven’t really felt good on the brakes and that hasn’t allowed me to get good quality laps in the sessions. We have a lot of things to improve on tomorrow. In some corners, we’re doing quite well, so I think we’ll have to focus on the tight corners tomorrow. If we can put everything together, I think we’ll be fine – we know where we need to improve, but how we do it is another story. I’m sure we’ll find a solution.”
On Saturday, despite the young Japanese driver's hopes, things didn't go much better, with the number 79 qualifying 15th. After the start, he gained a place to run in P14 for the first 4 laps. Moving up to P13 on lap 5 and P12 on lap 6, he held on for the next two laps with a half-second gap to Brad Binder in front of him, then pushed to close in. By lap 10, the gap had dropped to 0,2 seconds, but it wasn't possible to get close enough to fight for 11th place before the checkered flag came out.
Finishing 12th isn't a bad result in itself for a rookie in the category, quite the opposite, but the reigning Moto2 world champion had us used to better from the start. Let's wait for the Grand Prix...
Ai Ogura : “The Sprint went well today. It was pretty much what I expected, or even a little better, so I can be pretty happy with today. I'm a little happier today than yesterday because the front tire worked well for 12 laps, but I don't know how it will be tomorrow in the full race. I wasn't really behind anyone, I was just close to Binder in the last two laps. For tomorrow, I think everyone will use the medium rear tire, so I don't know how it will go. I'm not very fast at the moment and I don't know if I'll be able to have the same style of racing tomorrow.”
Davide Brivio, Team Manager: “The sprint was difficult for Ai and Raul. Ai fought a bit at the front and Raul didn't have the same feeling as yesterday afternoon and this morning. So we have to work tonight to see what we can learn from today and put it into practice tomorrow. Ultimately, the starting position doesn't help: Ai's pace wasn't that bad and he could have been further forward with the second group, but starting 15th doesn't make it easy to move up. In any case, we have to take the information for tomorrow and improve on what we did today.”
2025 MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix Sprint Results:
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
MotoGP Jerez Ai Ogura
