Ogura Moves Closer To World Championship Lead
SachsenringAi Ogura (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia) reignited his World Championship hopes with a superb comeback to eighth place at red-hot Sachsenring today after a complicated two days of practice and qualifying.
Conditions were punishing for riders and machines, with ambient temperature at 35 degrees and track temperature at 51 degrees.
The 21-year-old from Tokyo qualified 14th quickest yesterday but soon after the race started this afternoon he started moving forward, making it into the top ten around half-distance and then making up two further positions before the chequered flag. And he finished less than a second behind the rider in front of him.
Meanwhile World Championship leader Celestino Vietti (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) crashed out in the closing stages, while running several places behind Ogura, who now stands just eight points behind the Italian youngster with ten of 20 races still remaining.
Ogura’s team-mate Somkiat Chantra (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia) also made something of a comeback after struggling on Friday and Saturday. The winner of this year’s Indonesian Moto2 race started from 21st on the grid, which left him deep in the midst of the pack at a circuit where overtaking is particularly complicated.
The 23-year-old Indonesian finally made it into the points in the closing stages, to take home one point to add to his World Championship tally. Chantra currently stands ninth in the championship.
The race was won by Augusto Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo), who took the lead from early pace-setter Lowes and built up and impressive seven-second advantage over Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo), who prevailed over Lowes in a great fight for the runner-up spot, the pair separated by just 0.140 seconds at the finish.
Right behind them were fourth-placed local-hero Marcel Schrotter (Liqui Moly Intact GP). Fermín Aldeguer (MB Conveyors Speed Up) finished fifth, just in front of former Moto3 World Champion, Albert Arenas (GASGAS Aspar Team), Alonso Lopez (MB Conveyors Speed Up) and Ogura.
The Moto2 paddock now heads north-west to Assen for the Dutch MotoGP round, before embarking on a five-week, mid-season summer break.
Today's race was quite OK. I finished eighth – unfortunately that was my maximum this time. I'm happy about the race but the problems came from practice. We couldn't adapt well to the circuit and the conditions; so we must improve much more before the race. Now we are going to Assen, and I'm looking to find a solution to be fast again.
Today's race was quite OK. I finished eighth – unfortunately that was my maximum this time. I'm happy about the race but the problems came from practice. We couldn't adapt well to the circuit and the conditions; so we must improve much more before the race. Now we are going to Assen, and I'm looking to find a solution to be fast again.
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This morning I tried to recover the feeling I had lost during the weekend. The set-up worked very well and allowed me to recover four positions on the first lap at the start of the race. I tried to be calm during the race, not pushing too much, because the conditions were extreme. Many corners here are to the left, so I tried to keep the rear tyre in good condition. But in the middle of the race I started to lose grip. I tried to do my best, and today that was P15. We will see in Assen.
This morning I tried to recover the feeling I had lost during the weekend. The set-up worked very well and allowed me to recover four positions on the first lap at the start of the race. I tried to be calm during the race, not pushing too much, because the conditions were extreme. Many corners here are to the left, so I tried to keep the rear tyre in good condition. But in the middle of the race I started to lose grip. I tried to do my best, and today that was P15. We will see in Assen.
