Trackhouse solo rider Ai Ogura (3rd): “Only my position and time are positive!”

Ai Ogura got off to a very solid start on Friday at the second Asian round of the MotoGP World Championship. The Japanese rider qualified in third place at the Sepang International Circuit, making him the fastest Aprilia rider. The 25-year-old came close to the benchmark set by Marc Marquez (Ducati Lenovo), finishing just 0.167 seconds behind the championship leader.

In the morning, world champion Marquez had built up a lead of more than four tenths of a second over second place, although there were still some damp patches on the track at that stage. In the afternoon, the gap between first place and tenth (Joan Mir) was just 0.6 seconds. “The positive thing about today was definitely the lap time and the position,” explained Ogura, before adding: “The negative was everything else.”

“Spongy feeling” in almost every corner

“I think it’s the same for all the riders. I get this spongy feeling in almost every corner. The track feels a bit mushy, the tyre isn’t responding properly. The bike won’t let me manoeuvre it the way I’d like to – that was the main problem.”

Other riders also commented on the track conditions. Ogura continued: “The tarmac is somehow a bit rougher. It’s that feeling you keep getting, especially after the rain – it was still like that even in the afternoon.” On the technology of the Aprilia RS GP, the Japanese rider – who, as always, is somewhat taciturn – says: “I could hardly feel any difference between the old and the new aerodynamics.”

Ogura is currently just four points behind fourth-placed Pedro Acosta (Red Bull-KTM) in the MotoGP World Championship standings. After Day 1 in Malaysia, Ogura is racing as a lone rider for Trackhouse-Aprilia, as his Spanish team-mate Raul Fernandez had to retire after just a few laps of FP1 due to problems with his injured right hand.

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31.10.2026 - 01:35