The 17th round of the MotoGP season, the Japanese Grand Prix, was held from September 26th to 28th at Motegi Mobility Resort in Tochigi Prefecture, and Ai Ogura (Aprilia), who competes in the MotoGP class, finished 9th in the sprint race. She was unable to compete in the final race due to a worsening injury to her right hand.
9th in the sprint, but unfortunately missed the final
Ai Ogura (Aprilia), who stepped up to the MotoGP class in 2025, was competing in her home Grand Prix for the first time as a MotoGP rider. However, she had some concerns: an injury to her right hand.
Ogura fell in the final race of the previous race, the San Marino Grand Prix, and injured his right hand. He confirmed with us during a press conference on Thursday that he has two cracks on the back of his right hand. Ogura did not ride in the official test following the San Marino Grand Prix. After returning to Japan, he apparently rode his bike once to check the condition of his right hand.
Although the race was held at Motegi in his home country of Japan, this race week was the first time he had raced at MotoGP on a MotoGP machine. The conditions were the same as at most of the circuits he had raced at up until now, so the first thing he had to do was to get the MotoGP machine adapted to Motegi. In that sense, despite his injury, Ogura was progressing smoothly through the race week.
Although he was 14th in Friday afternoon’s practice, he recorded the third-fastest time in Qualifying 1 (Q1). If he can finish in the top 10 in practice, he will advance to Qualifying 2 (Q2). In Q2, 12 riders, including the top two from Q1, will compete for qualifying positions. In other words, once he advances to Q2, his starting position, 12th or higher, will be decided. In that sense, practice is an important session.
As mentioned earlier, Ogura finished 14th in practice, missing out on direct entry to Q2. However, in Q1 he set a time that was likely to improve his personal best in his final attack. During this final attack, a crash occurred in the latter sector of the course, which brought out the yellow flag. As Ogura passed through this section while the yellow flag was in effect, his final lap time was invalidated. This valid time placed him in third place.
Even though the yellow flag invalidating the lap time was inevitable, it’s still a “what if” scenario, but it’s safe to say that Ogura had the potential to advance to Q2 at that time. Incidentally, Ogura has advanced to Q2 three times in the MotoGP class (Thailand GP, Qatar GP, and Catalunya GP). This is a time attack in which the world’s best riders put all their effort into shaving off 0.1 or 0.01 seconds. It’s not easy to make it into the 12 riders in Q2.
Regarding qualifying, Ogura said in a press conference on Saturday, “I was able to finish yesterday’s (Friday’s) session in good shape. Today I started from there and was able to take a step up today, so I think that’s good.”
In the sprint race, Ogura, as always, steadily improved his position, starting from 13th and finishing in 9th place.
Ogura acknowledged that “it was a good race,” and explained the condition of his right hand, “It settled down a bit around the middle of the race, so it was a little bit there. However, there were no problems at the beginning or end of the race.”
Needless to say, the condition of his right hand worsened the more he ran. Ogura also said at the time that “it’s not as good as yesterday.” However, from Ogura’s behavior during the press conference, it seemed that he would give it his all in the final race.
However, on Sunday, the team announced that Ogura would miss the final race. The explanation given was that “the condition of his right hand has worsened.” As he did not race the final race, there was no press conference for Ogura on Sunday. The next race, the Indonesian Grand Prix, is a consecutive race, but a decision on whether he will participate will be made after his arrival in Mandalika to assess his recovery.
However, at the Japanese Grand Prix, Ogura made steady progress as usual from Friday to Saturday, resulting in a 9th place finish in the sprint race. While the second half of the season was somewhat of a struggle compared to the first half, his 9th place finish in the sprint race was a good result, on par with his result at the Catalan Grand Prix. It can be said that Ogura made progress by using the Japanese Grand Prix as another race week to gain experience.
©Trackhouse Racing
