Ogura Looks for Podium Return at Aragon
MotorLand AragónAi Ogura (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia Kalex) comes to MotorLand Aragon this week aiming to use his love of the circuit to his advantage.
Two years ago Ogura scored his first Grand Prix podium at the track – taking second place in the 2019 Moto3 race aboard his Honda NSF250RW – and another podium on Sunday would be the perfect way to continue his impressive rookie season in Moto2.
Ogura has been steadily building speed and confidence since the start of the year, taking his first Moto2 podium at last month’s Austrian GP. Two weeks ago the 20-year-old from Tokyo finished ninth at Silverstone, in his first Moto2 appearance at one of MotoGP’s fastest, most complicated and challenging venues. It will make all the difference for the youngster to be back at a track he knows so well.
Ogura stands eighth in the World Championship, only five points behind fifth-placed Aron Canet (Aspar Team Moto2 Boscoscuro).
Team-mate Somkiat Chantra (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia Kalex) has also been on strong form lately, with two top-eight results from the last three races – an eighth and a best-ever fifth at Red Bull Ring. The 22-year-old Thai rider intends to continue that kind of form at Aragon.
The 2021 Moto2 World Championship is led by Remy Gardner (Red Bull KTM Ajo Kalex) who at Silverstone scored his fourth victory of the year to extend his advantage over Augusto Fernandez (Elf Marc Racing VDS Kalex) who crashed out of the race. That gives the 23-year-old Australian a 44-point advantage over his 20-year-old Spanish team-mate Raul Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo Kalex), with six races remaining.
Marco Bezzecchi (Sky Racing Team VR46 Kalex) is still in the title hunt after taking a great second place to Gardner at Silverstone. The 22-year-old Italian has only achieved a single victory so far this year (at August’s Styrian GP) but his consistency has kept his championship hopes alive, even if he is 52 points behind Gardner.
Thirty-year-old Briton Sam Lowes (Elf Marc Racing VDS Kalex) still has a mathematical chance of the title, although he hasn’t finished on the podium since May’s Spanish GP or won a race since April’s Doha round.
Next round on the 2021 Moto2 World Championship is the San Marino GP at Misano – a 1500km/620-mile drive away - where practice starts next Friday morning.
The last race at Silverstone was quite tough for us – it was no fiesta! - but we still managed to finish in the top ten. We started that weekend almost last and finished ninth, so it was not so bad. Now I am very much looking forward to Aragon. I’ve ridden the circuit many times, although as usual this year it will be my first time there with a Moto2 bike. we will work hard and see what we can do – I’m really excited to ride there again.
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During this next weekend at Aragon we will make the same planning for the race as last time and I think we can do better at Aragon. For sure we can improve more and if we can do this then we can fight in the first group. We will see how practice and qualifying go and then we will do our best in the race.