Raul Fernandez at Motegi: “Acosta will be very strong here again”

Things went brilliantly for Trackhouse Aprilia rider Raúl Fernández both before and immediately after the summer break. In the Netherlands, Germany and England, the Madrid-born rider – who has been confirmed to remain with the American team for 2027 – finished on the podium. His performance was crowned by victory at Silverstone.

At that point, the number 25 rider was on the attack, ahead of Acosta and just behind Fabio Di Giannantonio in the World Championship standings. Recently, however, the remarkable Aprilia quartet of 2026 has become a trio – and for a brief spell, with team-mate Ai Ogura out with a broken thumb, it was even reduced to a duo. The Japanese rider missed two events, during which things didn’t go well for Fernández either. In the last three Grand Prix races, he scored just 14 points, making him by far the weakest rider on the RS-GP.

Most recently, Raúl Fernández has had to drop back

This was particularly noticeable most recently at the Red Bull Ring. Whilst the Aprilia frontrunners were consistently at the front, Fernandez struggled, failing even to make it through to the second qualifying session. Ogura shone (albeit behind Martin and Bezzecchi) on his return with two fourth-place finishes, whilst Fernandez was stuck in 12th place at the Austrian Grand Prix, behind Enea Bastianini (KTM) and ahead of Honda stand-in rider Nakagami.

The Spaniard is still reeling from the setback. “The way things went recently in Austria was a bit frustrating. We spent the whole weekend on this stop-and-go track trying to understand why I was having such problems,” said Fernandez ahead of the first day of practice in Japan. The Trackhouse rider put this down to the tyres – and is therefore hopeful of being fully competitive again: “Recently, it’s been about understanding why I wasn’t able to make perfect use of the rear tyre and always felt I couldn’t accelerate properly. Here we have completely different tyre types available – and I hope that this will bring back that familiar feeling.”

Trackhouse-Pilot Raul Fernandez hatte zuletzt viel zu grübeln

Foto: Gold and Goose

Topic of the week

Nicolo Bulega: Toprak’s successor will not fail in MotoGP

The Italian Nicolo Bulega is the first rider to have won the world title in both the Supersport and Superbike classes; from 2027, he will be racing in MotoGP. His performances this season are second to none.

Ivo Schützbach

Read More

TV Program

Today

Motegi: International Livestream

MotoGP World Championship

02.10.2026 - 01:55

That doesn’t make it any easier, though, as the last few races have highlighted the unpredictability involved in finding the ideal set-up. A prime example was the competition from Ducati. The long-standing Spielberg dominator didn’t even make it onto the podium at the Austrian Grand Prix – whilst KTM rider Pedro Acosta was now setting the fastest pace.

Fernandez still has his compatriot on his radar, though: “Acosta and KTM weren’t just very strong in Thailand and Austria – Pedro was also at the front right before the races at Spielberg. He’s incredibly strong, especially under braking, which is why he’ll be in the mix in Japan too.”

A look at the 2025 results is only of limited significance. Yet in the Sprint, Fernandez finished eighth, just ahead of Ai Ogura, whilst in the Grand Prix he came seventh, although both Jorge Martin and Ogura were sidelined through injury at the time. For Raúl Fernández, the main priority at Motegi is to ensure he doesn’t get left behind by his Aprilia team-mates, as has happened recently. If he manages that, the seventh-placed rider in the World Championship should automatically find himself back among the leaders.