Silverstone Circuit, England: Track length: 3.666 miles / 5.9 kilometers
Warm Up: 9.40am – 9.50am – Wet Track
Air Temperature: 57.2F / 14C
Track Temperature: 69.8F / 21C
‍
#25 Raul Fernandez
P1 – Best Lap: 2’12.973 – Lap 5 of 5
Top speed: 196.17 mph / 315.7 km/h
‍
RACE: 1pm – Dry track: 20 Laps – 73.32 miles / 118 kilometers (Reduced to 19 Laps after Red Flag)
Air Temperature: 60.8F / 16C
Track Temperature: 86F / 30C
‍
#25 Raul Fernandez – P12 (Race Points: 4 Championship Standing: 18 Total Points: 19) – Promoted 1 position
Race Time: 38’32.212 Best Lap: 2’00.733 – Lap 7 of 19
Average speed: 108.43 mph 174.5 Km/h Top speed: 205.18 mph / 330.2 km/h
‍
#79 Ai Ogura – Did not start (Race Points: 0 Championship Standing: 13 Total Points: 43)
- Following the accident that Ai suffered at turn 2 in Free Practice 1, on Friday, the injury he suffered has been diagnosed as a possible fracture at the top of his right tibia. Prior to Free Practice 2 on Saturday morning, he was declared unfit to ride for the remainder of the Grand Prix of the United Kingdom and has withdrawn from the meeting, returning to Barcelona for further tests.
- Trackhouse MotoGP Team will release further news on Ai’s condition in due course and in the meantime, wish him a speedy recovery.
‍
Race Notes Quotes:
In the points for the Trackhouse #25 as Raul Fernandez takes 13th position at Silverstone. #79 Ai Ogura withdrawn from the event – injured after crashing in Friday’s FP1 session.
- The wide, flat, fast expanses of Silverstone Circuit provided a very different challenge to the layout of the Le Mans Bugatti Circuit and the Grand Prix of the United Kingdom is a race that the Trackhouse MotoGP Team was looking forward to when the race haulers rolled into the British track.
- Aprilia have gone well here in past years and with Ai Ogura’s continuous development and Raul’s improved showing in France, this is a venue which promised to allow the RS-GP25 to show its credentials.
- Friday, as has been the case at most rounds so far this season, dealt the American team some immediate challenges. Raul was unable to extract the performance from his bike that he had begun to discover in France – particularly in the high-speed turns that are key to a lap time around Silverstone and for Ai, the weekend got off to a particularly brutal beginning. In the morning Free Practice 1 session, having spent time finding his markers in the early laps on a MotoGP bike, he crashed heavily at Turn 2 and damaged his right leg. Initially feeling discomfort in his knee, later medical investigation suggested a fracture at the top of his Tibia bone, below the
knee and such was the swelling and limited movement, he was declared unfit to ride and withdrew from the event.
- That left the #25 as sole Trackhouse representative and having been unable to find the speed in Friday afternoon Practice, preventing progress directly into Saturday’s Qualifying 2, Raul was faced with needing to get into the top 2 in the first qualifying shootout to guarantee a starting position in the top 12 on the grid.
- On Saturday, yellow flags and some continuing struggles with the feeling on his RS-GP25 meant Raul could not get into Q2 and was faced with a start position of 16th for both the afternoon Sprint and Sunday’s main Grand Prix of the United Kingdom.
- The start of the 10 Lap Sprint race got off to a difficult start when Raul had contact with another bike breaking the front wings on the right side of his Trackhouse Aprilia. For there on, the lack of balance, exacerbated by the wind blowing across Silverstone, made progress impossible and Raul took the checkers in 19th spot.
- Warm Up on Sunday morning was run on a wet track for the first time in the weekend but Raul found some pace to register fastest time on the leader board – a welcome step ahead of the main race.
- The main Grand Prix of the United Kingdom was interrupted after first lap collisions required track maintenance and after the reduced 19 laps distance, Raul battled to a points scoring 13 th place finish.