MotoGP: The #79 continues his charge in Czechia, heading Di Giannantonio and Bagnaia on the front row at Brno.
Can anyone stop Ai Ogura in Brno? The SuperFile Trackhouse MotoGP team rider was fastest on Friday before smashing the lap record again on Saturday morning, taking his very first pole position in MotoGP. His 1:51.139 puts him more than two tenths clear of Fabio Di Giannantonio (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team) in second place, with Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) just another 0.033 in arrears in third. Ogura is the sixth different polesitter this season and becomes the first Japanese rider on pole since the 2020 Teruel GP.
Here’s how it played out in Czechia.
Q1: Martin makes it count
Jorge Martin (Aprilia Racing) is fit to ride but a little worse for wear this weekend in the aftermath of his Hungarian GP crash, leaving the 2024 World Champion down in Q1 following Friday’s action. But he was able to ease through into the second qualifying session, putting in a 1:51.819 to top Q1 by a couple of tenths ahead of Franco Morbidelli (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team).
That left Maverick Viñales (Red Bull KTM Tech3) just thousandths out of Q2 with the #12 to start in P13 just ahead of the returning Alex Marquez (BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP). An incident between Toprak Razgatliouglu (Prima Pramac Yamaha MotoGP) and Enea Bastianini (Red Bull KTM Tech3) saw the Italian gesticulating on track after feeling his lap was interrupted, and that was looked at by the FIM MotoGP Stewards, who then gave the Turkish rider a three-place grid penalty for Sunday. After a tougher session anyway, that drops him behind Castrol Honda LCR’s Cal Crutchlow.
Q2: Ogura unmatchable
The grid was nearly impossible to predict ahead of the session and after the first runs it was Diggia on provisional pole ahead of Diogo Moreira (Pro Honda LCR) and Ogura, but more red sectors were lighting up the timesheets.
The first of a flotilla of improvers was Bagnaia, who scorched round to shave a quarter of a second off Diggia’s previous best laptime at the top. Then came Marc Marquez (Ducati Lenovo Team), who came up on his teammate short by half a tenth, before the graphics lit up with another red-red-red: Ogura. It was a stunner, putting the Japanese rider on provisional pole by over two tenths with just two minutes of the session remaining. Could anyone hit back?
Di Giannantonio was next to put in a fast one but he couldn’t depose Ogura, slotting into second as he just edged Bagnaia down to third. As the track went quieter it seemed a done deal, with no one able to put together an attack for the front row. The remaining question seemed to be Marc Marquez, but the #93 then rolled out of his final attempt at it too. That was that: Ogura remained unmatched in Brno.
The Grids
Behind that top three of Ogura, Diggia and Bagnaia, Championship leader Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia Racing) slots into fourth at the head of the second row. He’s got Marc Marquez alongside him in P5, with that row completed by Moreira as the Brazilian rookie continues his run of impressive Q2 results and makes it another personal best.
Raul Fernandez, who has been suffering from some illness on the way into the round, is the second SuperFile Trackhouse MotoGP team machine heading Row 3 in seventh, just ahead of Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), who will be gunning for a lot more once the lights go out for racing. Morbidelli takes P8 having come through Q1, reversing the order as the #21 will now start just ahead of the rider who topped that first qualifying session: Martin. In the Tissot Sprint the #89 has a straight ride to the finish, but on Sunday he has two Long Lap penalties to serve for that incident at Turn 1 in Hungary.
Fermin Aldeguer (BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP) takes P11 ahead of Joan Mir (Honda HRC Castrol), with Viñales, Alex Marquez and Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoG) completing Row 5.
That’s that on qualifying – with the grids set to deliver some stunning showdowns in Brno. Can Ogura convert pole? The master of tyre life – or as Marco Bezzecchi put it on Friday, “a pain in the ass” – now starts ahead of the rest… tune in at 15:00 on Saturday for the Tissot Sprint and then 14:00 on Sunday for the Grand Prix!
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