Saturday, September 6, 2025
Circuit of Barcelona-Catalunya. Spain
Circuit of Barcelona-Catalunya. Spain: Track length: 2.894 miles / 4.657 kilometers
Free Practice 2: 10.10am – 10.40pm – Dry Track
Air Temperature: 68°F / 20°C
Track Temperature: 105.8°F / 41°C
#25 Raul Fernandez
P12 – Best Lap: 1’39.481 – Lap 9 of 12
Top speed: 215.74 mph / 347.2 km/h
#79 Ai Ogura
P21 – Best Lap: 1’39.871 – Lap 10 of 13
Top speed: 217.17 mph / 349.5 km/h
Qualifying 1: 10.50am – 11.05am – Dry track
Air Temperature: 71.6°F / 22°C
Track Temperature: 86°F / 30°C
#25 Raul Fernandez - Qualified P15
P5 – Best Lap: 1’37.348 – Lap 6 of 8
Top speed: 187.96 mph / 302.5 km/h
Qualifying 2: 11.15am – 11.30am – Dry track
Air Temperature: 73.4°F / 23°C
Track Temperature: 89.6°F / 32°C
#79 Ai Ogura - Qualified P8
P8 – Best Lap: 1’38.166 – Lap 7 of 8
Top speed: 219.28 mph / 352.9 km/h
Sprint Race: 3.00pm – Dry track: 12 Laps – 34.728 miles / 55.884 kilometers
Air Temperature: 82.4°F / 28°C
Track Temperature: 104°F / 40°C
#79 Ai Ogura – P9 (Race Points: 1 Championship Standing: 16 Total Points: 59)
Race Time: 20’07.434 Best Lap: 1’39.548 – Lap 3 of 12
Average speed: 103.52 mph 166.6 km/h Top speed: 217.85 mph / 350.6 km/h
#25 Raul Fernandez – PP11 (Race Points: 0 Championship Standing: 13 Total Points: 73)
Race Time: 20’08.734 Best Lap: 1’39.477 – Lap 3 of 12
Average speed: 103.4 mph 166.4 km/h Top speed: 220.71 mph / 355.2 km/h
Notes & Quotes:
P9 Sprint and Championship point finish for #79 Ai Ogura – P11 for #25 Raul Fernandez.
AI OGURA
- Grid position: P8 – Race start on Front: medium – slick tire & Rear: soft – slick tire
- A strong Friday Practice session performance set-up a good run to 8th on the grid for young, Japanese, rookie Ai Ogura in qualifying.
- Lining up in the middle of the third row, Ai got squeezed back as the pack arrived for the first time into the tight right at Turn 1, crossing the start-finish line in 12th after the first tour of the Sprint.
- From there, he dropped one place on the next lap and then another place but started to make progress up the running order as others came to grief ahead.
- Into 11th on Lap 8 and 10th on Lap 9 his late race pace was strong and Ai made a final place on the last lap for 9th at the checkers.
- The 9th place finish gives Ai a Championship point and the bragging rights as first Aprilia home.
“I think in the race it was all about the first few laps where I lost too many positions. From the second half of the Sprint, my pace was quite OK and I could pass a few riders, but that was too late for only 12 laps. It was a good learning session for tomorrow - I need to be more aggressive in the beginning of the race and at the same time I need to save the tire, especially the rear. So, there are a lot of things to take from the Sprint race and the most important thing is, we know what to fix, what to improve. Tomorrow is a long race, so it’s going to be interesting - we’ll see.”
RAUL FERNANDEZ
- Grid position: P15 – Race start on Front: medium – slick tire & Rear: soft – slick tire
- Friday’s Practice session proved frustrating for Raul Fernandez, unable to find ultimate pace after a promising First Practice in the morning, which meant participation in the Qualifying 1 session on Saturday morning.
- Raul could not find enough speed in Q1 to reach the all-important top two and entry into second qualifying – P15 on the grid for the afternoon Sprint and Sunday’s Grand Prix.
- Off the Sprint start, Raul, like his teammate lost some momentum in the early stages of Lap 1 and came around in 17th place across the stripe.
- Up to 15th on Lap 2, he followed Ai line-astern for the middle part of race before gaining places from Lap 8.
- Initially into 12th spot, he moved up to 11th on Lap 9 – the position he brought home at the end of the 12 laps.
- No points and some work to do overnight ahead of Sunday’s 24 lap Grand Prix of Catalunya.
“After being in Q1, the starting position is not the one we wanted - it’s a difficult track to try to overtake and we also need to manage the tire. I think we made a good Sprint - yesterday I was quite slow and didn’t go directly into Q2, which was a problem but, today I felt very good with the bike again and I was very competitive. Compared to yesterday, we definitely made a big step - the pace of the bike is much better than on Friday and it’s also very different. We had to work a lot on the bike and we also learned for the future so, right now, we understand a lot of things and I believe we can improve a little bit for tomorrow. We need to try to save the tires because I think it will be a very difficult race but, anyway, I feel good and very positive for tomorrow.”
“We can take the Sprint as a good test for tomorrow. Ai was able to score a point - again, he was quite fast at the end of the race. We probably missed out a bit in the first laps and then he remained a bit behind and had to recover. To be honest, we were also a little bit lucky with some crashes in front but, anyway, we managed to score one point. I would say, it was a bit back to normal with Ai. Raul was starting in P15 and here it’s quite difficult to manage the tire and in the meantime recover. So, he did the best he could - he was very close to the top 10. We have some good information for tomorrow, something we can improve so, we will work today to make tomorrow even better.”
- DAVIDE BRIVIO, TEAM PRINCIPAL
Trackhouse MotoGP Team Standing - Championship Position: 8th Total Points: 132
GranGrand Prix of Catalunya - 24 Laps: Sunday - 2pm (Local: GMT +2) 8am (ET) 5am (PT)
