Friday’s run started well, but the struggles began on Saturday
The Austrian Grand Prix is the first event of the second half of the season. Ai Ogura (Aprilia) returned to Japan after the Czech Grand Prix, which concluded the first half of the season, and took some time off to train. After the summer break, she is back in the MotoGP paddock.
The Red Bull Ring, where the Austrian Grand Prix is held, is where Ogura crashed and broke his right hand in 2024 while competing in the Moto2 class. Despite the incident, Ogura himself likes the Red Bull Ring. Therefore, he was looking forward to the weekend in a positive mood, saying, “I only have positive feelings about this circuit.”
He finished Friday afternoon’s practice in 12th place. Practice is an important session that separates Q1 and Q2 in Saturday’s qualifying. The riders in the top 10 positions in practice will advance to Q2 at this point. Q2 is a qualifying session contested by 12 riders, including the top two in Q1, so by advancing to Q2, he is guaranteed a place in the top 12 of the starting positions (grid). This is an extremely important session that can be thought of as the “qualifying before qualifying.”
Ogura, who was in 12th place, missed out on a direct advance to Q2, but the time difference between him and the 10th-place rider was only 0.032 seconds. It was a very close race. Ogura also felt confident, saying, “I’m usually in a much lower position, but (this time) I feel like I’m in the middle of the battle.”
However, things changed on Saturday. In qualifying (Q1), which is usually the best time to get a good time, Ogura was unable to improve on his practice time. Starting the sprint race from 19th place, Ogura finished in 15th place.
One area where Ogura has struggled since Saturday is braking.
“I’m struggling with braking and slowing down in a straight line, and although I can get a certain time, it’s tough from there on. Even in a race, if you don’t have a braking margin, you can’t attack.”
“At the level I achieved yesterday, I was able to stay in the fight to a certain extent. Today, my time didn’t improve much, but the others did. I just need to raise my own limits.”
Rain had been forecast for Sunday for several days, and in fact, heavy clouds hung over the sky on the morning of the day. However, contrary to the forecast, the sky cleared up as time passed, and the final race was held in dry conditions.
Ogura started the race from 19th and finished in 14th place. He said that by raising the car’s ride height, he felt a better feeling than the previous day.
His pace wasn’t bad in the second half, but starting from the back row in 19th place was a tough start. Nevertheless, Ogura steadily improved his position and made it to the finish line, a testament to his skills.
In a post-race interview, Ogura said, “In terms of content, I think today went pretty well.”
Balaton Park, the venue for the next round of the Hungarian Grand Prix, will be hosting a MotoGP for the first time, and Ogura has already seen footage of the Hungarian round of the Superbike World Championship (SBK) to get a feel for the circuit.
Interacting with fans at the event ©Trackhouse Racing
