MotoGP Japanese Rider's Race [Thailand GP] Ai Ogura: "I'm disappointed in myself" despite showing late-race strength and finishing 5th in the race.

The 2026 MotoGP season kicked off at Thailand's Chang International Circuit. It was not Ducati that won the opening round, neither in the sprint race nor the final race. Pedro Acosta of KTM won the sprint race, and Marco Beczecchi of Aprilia won the final race. Ducati missed the podium in the final race for the first time since the 2021 British GP. We will report on the battles of these Japanese riders in the Thai GP.

Ai Ogura Says She Is "Disappointed" to Finish 5th in the Final

The Thai GP was the stage where Ai Ogura (Truck House MotoGP Team) finished 4th in the sprint race and 5th in the final race in her 2025 season, her debut in the premier class. Ogura, who entered this event as the opening round of his second season, qualified 8th in Q2 and started the race from the third row. In the sprint race on Saturday, he finished 4th. Ogura reflected on the race, "My start was not good. During the start practice the day before the race, many riders had spun out due to the track conditions. Because of this, Ogura thought that other riders would spin at the start. However, that did not happen. Ogura said, "I didn't want to spin [at the start] today and end up very far back. So I got off to a pretty smooth start. Ogura finished the first lap in 7th, and from there he moved up with each passing lap, but the 13-lap race was marred by the difference in his start. In the final race on the following Sunday, "as for Ogura himself," he improved his start. However, when Joanne Mill (Honda HRC Castrol), who was 10th on the fourth row, made a great start and positioned himself in front of Ogura on the braking of the first corner, Ogura was left with no choice. Ogura was forced to drop back to 11th position. Ogura then continued to run 11th for a while behind Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing). Binder is a rider that Ogura has often cited as one of the hardest to pass, but this time the situation was a little different. Binder was not that difficult to overtake today, but when everyone still had tires, I could only run at about the same pace as them. I had no choice but to run the same way (at a similar pace)." Both temperatures and track surface temperatures rose on race day as well. According to the official records, the air temperature was 33 degrees Celsius and the track surface temperature was 52 degrees Celsius. Originally, Chang International Circuit is a tough circuit for tires, and after the race, many riders said they struggled with tire management. However, Ogura's strength is that even in these conditions, he can fight until the latter half of the race without losing more lap time than the other riders. In other words, Ogura is able to go faster when his rivals' tires are sagging. This was the case again this time. He passed Binder on lap 16, and was joined by 2022 and 2023 champion Francesco Bagnoia (Ducati Renovo Team), 2025 runner-up Alex Marquez (BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP), Fabio di Gianantonio ( Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team) and others, and by lap 24 he was up to fifth. However, he needed a few more laps to catch up to the top three. Ogura took the checkered flag in 5th place. Fifth place, the same as last year. However, Ogura's feelings were different from last year, when he was happy. I'm really, really disappointed in myself today," said Ogura. I'm really disappointed in myself today," she said repeatedly. Ogura's "ambition" was apparent. The season has only just finished its first round. The chance to see it come to fruition should come again.

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Ayumu Sasaki makes a good start in Moto2

The Moto2 class race was a rough one: after the first start, a crash brought the race to a red flag on lap 4; after the second start, another crash brought the race to a red flag on lap 2; after the third start, the race was shortened from the original 22 laps to 7 laps. Ayumu Sasaki (Momoven Idroforia RW Racing Team), in his third year in the Moto2 class, finished the race in 10th place. According to Sasaki, the track conditions were quite bad. The weekend of the Thai GP was sunny during the daytime, except for a little bit of rain that came and went on Friday afternoon. However, there was a squall on Saturday night, which worsened the conditions. I got a good start on the first lap and was able to move up to 7th. My pace was good, so I was thinking that if there were no problems, I would finish the race in 7th or something." Then, two red-flag stops occurred, and the team changed tires for the second time. The feeling of that tire was different from the first one. He said that the feeling of the rear tyre in particular worsened. I was 0.2 to 0.3 seconds behind per lap, and I think I could have fought for 7th, so I am a little disappointed to finish 10th. But compared to last year's race week in Thailand, I finished in a very good position. We will build up from here and do our best."

And now it is Taiyo Kozato (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) who has stepped up to the Moto2 class this season. This was Furusato's debut race in the difficult Moto2 class, and he finished the race in 16th place. This weekend, Taiyo Furusato had problems with braking. This turned out to be a problem with the front suspension setting, which was resolved on Saturday, but the machine was set up to match the previous front suspension. Therefore, for the final race, the team had to go out with the "fixed front suspension" setting. However, even though the race was shorter than originally planned, they were able to complete the race and learned many things during the race. In the Moto3 class, Ryusei Yamanaka (Ion Credit - MT Helmets - MSI), in his eighth season, started from the seventh position on the third row. However, he crashed on the second lap and was 24th after restarting. Also, Ryo Mitani (Honda Team Asia), making his debut race in the full Moto3 class at the Thai GP, started 26th and finished the race in 22nd place. He finished the race in 22nd place. He finished the race in 22nd place after starting from 26th position. My original pace was not good this week. But once the pace settled down, we each ran the time we had, and then there was time to make up another lap or two in the last five or three laps, but I couldn't make it up there. Nobuatsu Aoki, a former WGP and MotoGP rider whom Mitani admires as his "coach," came to this race and watched his protégé's debut in the World Championship. The second round of MotoGP, the Brazilian GP, will be held at the Goiania International Race Track Ayrton Senna in Brazil from March 20 to 22. The Brazilian GP is the first time in 22 years that the event has been held. Visit the gallery (6)