Fernández comfortable at the start of the race, Ogura at the end, a Grand Prix of contrasts for Trackhouse

Once again, the Trackhouse team confirmed the excellent form of Aprilia's overall package, finishing just behind Jorge Martín's factory machine. With Ai Ogura fifth and Raúl Fernández sixth, the American team scored maximum points behind the top four. However, the two riders' race stories were quite different, with Raúl Fernández making a strong comeback early in the race, while, as in Austin, Ogura was very impressive in the second half, this time managing to take the checkered flag.

Always very demanding of himself, the Japanese driver, as is often the case, saw the glass as half empty, identifying areas for improvement he will need to work on before the next Grands Prix. Unsurprisingly, race starts are among these areas for improvement, as are qualifying sessions, which can sometimes hinder someone who is regularly one of the fastest on track once the tires begin to wear.

“We can be very happy with our pace at the end of the race, but from the start to the middle of the race, I struggled a lot, and it took me a lot of laps to overtake Bastianini. The feeling finally started to come, and I managed to catch the riders ahead of me. However, we need to improve in the first part of the race. This Monday (during the Jerez tests), we have a day to work on that. When everyone has good tires, everyone can use that as an advantage, whereas I struggle to use mine. I need to understand why. At the same time, it's good to see that when everyone else is struggling, I'm not struggling as much as the others. We'll keep that positive and try to improve our pace at the beginning of the race. Qualifying is also a factor, but I'm not that fast in the wet or when it's cold. Those are my enemies.”

These were rivals the 2024 Moto2 World Champion had to contend with this weekend, as qualifying took place in mixed conditions, which particularly suited Frenchman Johann Zarco on his Honda. As for the other Aprilia of Trackhouse Racing, ridden by Raúl Fernández, he had a blistering start to the race before falling behind the Frenchman's Honda, which made things a bit more difficult for him towards the end of the race, ultimately allowing him to be overtaken by his teammate.

“From mid-race until the end, the problem was that when I was behind Johann, I tried to change my riding style a bit, which caused me to overuse my rear tire and didn't help me for the last five laps. I still think we did a very good job in the race, but we need to understand what Ai does, especially at the end of the race, to be as good. For our part, the work is done; of course, we want to do better, we have more potential and more to show, but I think we're on the right track to improve. It was a very positive weekend, but I need to improve some things on the bike. We also need to find something on the qualifying lap, as our race pace always seems better. We've taken a step forward compared to the previous Grand Prix, but we need to find something; it's important to be able to start higher up the grid because it's difficult to overtake.”

Undoubtedly, the two Trackhouse drivers will be keen to put into practice everything they have learned at the next scheduled round on the calendar, the French Grand Prix at Le Mans, on May 10th.

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