Ai Ogura impressed in his MotoGP debut and is the best Aprilia rider – Marco Bezzecchi is satisfied with his performance, but still sees a weakness in himself
In the absence of Jorge Martin, Aprilia was still able to make a name for itself at the MotoGP season opener in Thailand. Above all, rookie Ai Ogura. The Trackhouse rider rode like an “old hand”. The Japanese rider caused a stir with fourth place in the sprint. For laps, he put former world champion Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) under pressure.
Ogura confirmed this performance in the Grand Prix. He finished fifth behind the Ducati quartet. “We were able to keep up over the full race distance, so I’m happy,” beamed the reigning Moto2 world champion. “Today I’m even happier.”
“The biggest challenge for me was tire management, but I learned a lot from ‘Pecco’ in the sprint. I did the same in the main race. My pace was pretty good. The last six or seven laps were quite difficult to manage.“
”However, I had expected that before the race.” Ogura also emphasized that the heat did not cause him any problems at all: ”I don’t feel the heat that much, which is an advantage. Maybe because I did a lot of racing in Asia in the Asia Talent Cup.”
After a poor start in the sprint, the Grand Prix went better for Marco Bezzecchi. He was part of the chasing group and eventually crossed the finish line in sixth place, but seven seconds behind Ogura. The Italian rates his performance as he had expected in advance.
“In the end, it was neither better nor worse. It was almost exactly as I expected. To be honest, I would have liked to have improved in qualifying. I’m not the best at the time attack yet,“ Bezzecchi admits.
”I didn’t try many qualifying laps during the tests because we had a lot of other things to try out. That’s why we didn’t focus on that in particular. I think that’s now backfired on me a little.“
”I think I have to ride more instinctively. I tend to do it the way I was used to in previous years [with the Ducati], but the bike doesn’t always take to that way of riding in qualifying attempts. That’s why I still make small mistakes.”
Mistakes that Ogura did not make. As a rookie in February, he also rode the shakedown test in Malaysia, unlike Bezzecchi, and thus spent more days with the RS-GP than Bezzecchi.
Ogura finished fifth in qualifying. Bezzecchi was ninth and also had a crash. Can Bezzecchi take a leaf out of Ogura’s book? “We ride quite similarly,” says the Italian. “He is really precise and really good.”
“I knew he was very fast and extremely talented. Like all Japanese people, he is very methodical and professional in his work. Of course, I look at his data and try to do even better and learn from him.“
”He does the same with me and also with Raul. I analyze everyone’s data to get a better understanding of what is possible. In the end, it is always helpful to see your strengths and weaknesses in black and white.”
Raul Fernandez has to retire due to front tire damage
Aprilia was represented by three riders in the top 10 for a long time, especially in the role of first pursuer of Ducati. Until the 13th lap, Raul Fernandez was in seventh place, directly in front of Bezzecchi. At that point, it was a battle group with Jack Miller (Pramac-Yamaha).
“At the beginning of the race, it was one of my best MotoGP races in terms of management,“ says Fernandez. ‘The positive thing is that I was in a really good position for the first 15 laps.’
”I fought hard and did everything I could to prepare optimally for the final phase of the race. After the 15th lap, when I was sixth or seventh, I tried to attack Jack. For some reason, the front tire then overheated.”
While Ogura and Bezzecchi were riding with the soft front tire, Fernandez had opted for the hard Michelin. ‘I didn’t ride in another rider’s slipstream the whole race,’ Fernandez insists.
“I only rode in Jack’s slipstream for two laps as I tried to attack him. I don’t quite understand what happened. From that moment on, the tire stopped working and I had to give up the race because I was 1.5 seconds slower.”
Fernandez parked his RS-GP in the Trackhouse pit box. Nevertheless, the general performance makes him optimistic: “The positive thing is that the bike works very well and I feel really comfortable with it. I think our package is strong.”
In previous years, the hot race in Thailand was a big problem for Aprilia. The bike radiated so much heat onto the riders that they could hardly breathe. Now the engineers have got this problem under control.
No drivers complained of any further problems, apart from the general heat. “After what Maverick and Aleix said last year, I expected worse,” said Bezzecchi. “But compared to other bikes, it wasn’t that bad.”
