Moto2 Austria FP1: Ai Ogura has well and truly arrived

Moto2 rookie Ai Ogura went fastest in the Moto2 FP1 session.

Ai Ogura has well and truly arrived in Moto2, the rookie has shown some stunning speed all year long, this coming to fruition last weekend at the Styrian Grand Prix when the Japanese rider qualified in second place ahead of the race, unfortunately, his race didn’t go to plan being forced to do a long lap penalty finishing in P5, but he has proven he has what it takes in his incredibly quick adaptation to the class. The rookie led Augusto Fernandez by 0.007, the Marc VDS rider taking two podium finishes in the last two races after finally adapting to the new size front tyre from Dunlop. Fernandez knows he had to improve and he is now a consistent front runner in Moto2.

Marcel Schrotter took third place ahead of last time winner Marco Bezzecchi, Bezzecchi won his first race of the season last time out and aims to double up here in Austria at a track he likes a lot! Another rider impressing is Lorenzo Dalla Porta, every session he is in the top 10/top 5, the ex-Moto3 champion just needs to start translating this into race performances and he will be set for the rest of the year to fight for a 2022 Moto2 seat.

In sixth place came Sam Lowes ahead of last time podium finisher Aron Canet on the Boscoscuro chassis, the Aspar rider is putting in a really strong season so far, earning him a spot in the Pons team on a Kalex for 2022. Another rider on the move is Raul Fernandez in P8, the rookie was announced last week to move up to the MotoGP class with the Tech3 team in rather murky circumstances, since the announcement he has been a little ‘off’ where he normally is, let’s hope he can return to the box this weekend.

Rounding off the top 10 were Somkiat Chantra and Albert Arenas with Remy Gardner in P11, the title leader strangely outside of the top 10, something we do not see much of these days, despite this he is only 0.394 seconds from P1.

The top 25 riders were covered by just one second with Xavi Vierge, Tony Arbolino, Jake Dixon, Joe Roberts and Bo Bendsneyder all sitting outside of the Q2 spots currently.

Full Results –