Saturday, September 27, 2025
Mobility Circuit Motegi. Japan
Mobility Circuit Motegi. Japan: Track length: 2.983 miles / 4.801 kilometers
Free Practice 2: 10.10am – 10.40pm – Dry Track
Air Temperature: 77°F / 25°C
Track Temperature: 100.4°F / 38°C
#79 Ai Ogura
P2 – Best Lap: 1’44.233 – Lap 12 of 13
Top speed: 194.49 mph / 313 km/h
#25 Raul Fernandez
P17 – Best Lap: 1’44.892 – Lap 4 of 12
Top speed: 193.93 mph / 312.1 km/h
Qualifying 1: 10.50am – 11.05am – Dry track
Air Temperature: 77°F / 25°C
Track Temperature: 84.2°F / 41°C
#79 Ai Ogura - Qualified P13
P3 – Best Lap: 1’43.429 – Lap 3 of 8
Top speed: 195.61 mph / 314.8 km/h
Qualifying 2: 11.15am – 11.30am – Dry track
Air Temperature: 78.8°F / 26°C
Track Temperature: 109.4°F / 43°C
#25 Raul Fernandez - Qualified P10
P10 – Best Lap: 1’43.353 – Lap 6 of 8
Top speed: 195.05 mph / 313.9 km/h
Sprint Race: 3.00pm – Dry track: 12 Laps – 35.796 miles / 57.612 kilometers
Air Temperature: 84.2°F / 29°C
Track Temperature: 113°F / 45°C
#25 Raul Fernandez – P8 (Race Points: 2 Championship Standing: 13 Total Points: 86)
Race Time: 21’09.447 Best Lap: 1’44.590 – Lap 4 of 12
Average speed: 101.97 mph 163.3 km/h Top speed: 196.17 mph / 315.7 km/h
#79 Ai Ogura – P9 (Race Points: 1 Championship Standing: 16 Total Points: 70)
Race Time: 21’09.593 Best Lap: 1’44.752 – Lap 3 of 12
Average speed: 101.47 mph 163.3 km/h Top speed: 197.91 mph / 317.6 km/h
Notes & Quotes:
P8 for #25 Raul Fernandez and P9 for #79 Ai Ogura, gives Trackhouse a double points score in Saturday’s Japan Sprint.
RAUL FERNANDEZ
- Grid position: P10 – Race start on Front: medium – slick tire & Rear: medium – slick tire
- On Friday, Raul suffered an early crash in the first Free Practice session which reduced track time and the opportunity to find the potential of his Trackhouse RS-GP25.
- The afternoon Friday Practice did show progress was made as Raul finished P9 and gained automatic entry to the 2nd Qualifying group on Saturday.
- The Q2 session ultimately proved frustrating for Raul – having put comfortably his fastest lap time on the timing sheet, the times fell in the last moments of the 15-minute shootout to leave him in 10th place on the grid for the afternoon Sprint and Sunday’s main Grand Prix.
- Getting off the line well at the start of the 12-lap Sprint race, Raul made two places in the early part of the opening lap and held that position over the line for the first time.
- Having run a strong pace throughout, he crossed the line for the final time to take 8th and 2 World Championship points.
- Sunday’s main race now beckons and the chance for Raul to make yet more progress in the full distance, 24-lap, Grand Prix of Japan.
“I am very happy - I think we are making a good job. This morning, in the qualifying, it was super close between all of us so, basically, we made a good qualifying and we know it is important to make a good position on the grid. After that, in the Sprint, I tried something different and made the Sprint with the medium rear. This meant that at the beginning of the race I was struggling a lot to warm up the tire but, for me, it was not a big problem so I am happy as I managed well and got some temperature in the tire. But, after that, we need to understand because from the middle to the end of the race, for some reason, I could not use well the tire after I started to feel some vibration on the bike. The strategy that we had in mind was to attack in the second part of the race so, the thing was to try to make something different which we did but we need to understand why we had the vibration because I could not use the medium in the last part of the Sprint. I am happy but we need to understand better for tomorrow because it will be a very long race.”
AI OGURA
- Grid position: P13 – Race start on Front: medium – slick tire & Rear: soft – slick tire
- Out on track in Friday morning’s first Free Practice, for his debut home race on a MotoGP bike, Ai spent the morning session working on bike set-up and race pace ahead of the weekend.
- In the afternoon Practice, he showed good speed and came within a whisker of automatic qualification into Saturday’s Qualifying 2 – only at the end of the session, he was pushed down to 14th and therefore, would need to progress through Qualifying 1 on Saturday.
- Having shown front-running pace throughout the Q1 session, Ai lit up the timing screens at the end of the session and looked to be heading for P1, only for his charge to be thwarted by a crash ahead which brought out the yellow flags and automatically cancelled his time. P13 did not do justice to the pace he was running.
- Away well when the lights went out at the start of the Sprint, Ai gained three positions early and ran 10th over the stripe to start Lap 2.
- Applying pressure on the Alex Marquez ahead he grabbed 9th place on Lap 9 and then ran on teammate Raul’s tail.
- Line astern for the final three laps, Ai grabbed a World Championship point as he saw the checkers in P9.
- All eyes now turn to the 24-lap Japanese Grand Prix, Sunday afternoon and the home boy will have huge support for his first premier class GP on his native pavement.
“I think my qualifying lap would have got me through to Q2 but in sector 3 and 4 I could not push as hard as I wanted because if I had crashed under the yellow flags it is a big mess so I was easy in the last two sectors but still it was enough to improve my lap time. So, I think, if there had been no yellow flag the lap time would have been good enough. The Sprint race was OK, I saw an accident in Turn 1 and I was quite close but, luckily, nothing happened to me and I got safely through Turn 1. Alex (Marquez) made a mistake which helped me and I passed him quite easily and then tried to overtake Raul in last lap but he was good at the defense. So, happy and it is good to see so many people wearing my shirts and caps. For tomorrow, I just want to do the same thing – make a good start and do my race and see where I finish. But, tomorrow is going to be a different tire - I think most will go with the medium rear and we will see.”
“Good race today – we managed to place both riders in the points, in the Sprint and in the top nine so we are happy and I think a solid race from both of them. Raul had to manage to keep Alex Marquez behind and Ai was able to overtake him (Alex Marquez) and gain a position so, anyway, we gained positions and we finished in the points so positive. Raul, of course, raced with a medium tire which means we can get some good information for tomorrow and yep, let’s keep going tomorrow.”
- DAVIDE BRIVIO, TEAM PRINCIPAL
Trackhouse MotoGP Team Standing - Championship Position: 8th Total Points: 148
Grand Prix of Japan - 24 Laps: Sunday - 2pm (Local: GMT +9) 1am (ET) 10pm - Saturday (PT)
