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It would have been rookie Ai Ogura's second good race in a row, 8th place in the Argentine Grand Prix, squeezed between Binder and Acosta and 14 seconds behind leader Marc Marquez, unfortunately for him later came disqualification for irregular ECU software.
No attempt at fraud. A technical error led to the installation of an incorrect ECU on the #79 Aprilia RS-GP used for the Argentine Grand Prix. A check after the race was over revealed a violation of the homologation rules and this led to the disqualification of the Japanese rookie.
It was admitted that the error did not give Ai any advantage in terms of on-track performance, as the bike's electronic setting was correct but loaded with the wrong firmware. Ai's performance was flawless, and although he had a very good race starting from 15th to 8th position, his bike did not comply with the current homologation through no fault of his own.
This highlights, however, a human error, understandable when compared to the youth of the team, but which once again underscores how Aprilia is a little too prone to small mistakes that affect the validity of its bikes.
"Another great day for Ai," highlighted Davide Brivio, "he made a great comeback, starting in P15 and finishing eighth, but above all what we really liked was the fights with many experienced riders, the overtaking when it's not so easy to do, overall it was very good, another great weekend for Ai despite the starting position. Let's keep going, let's keep going. Raul unfortunately had a penalty. There is nothing to do about that and it penalized his whole race. It looks like he was comfortable with the bike at the end, he was going well and probably could have gotten a good placing, but he couldn't take advantage of it. Anyway, his feeling with the bike has improved and now hopefully we can go from there in Austin."
Of course, throwing away an 8th place weighs heavily on the balance of the day.
"The post-race sanction against Ai is very disappointing. We have to accept the decision of the stewards, but we feel very sorry for Ogura because this didn't give him any advantage and it's very disappointing to take points away from a great race and the great performance he did on the track. It doesn't take anything away from him for what he did. It was just a wrong version of the ECU software. He had a great race, a fantastic comeback, and we're going to move on and continue."
A frustrated Ai Ogura had to accept the penalty, but that didn't take away his enthusiasm for the good race he did.
"The race was very good," said the outgoing Moto2 champion, "I was lucky after the start and gained a lot of positions, after that I was able to pass some riders and I was riding with a very good pace. In the Warm Up we found something and that made it much easier to go faster in the race. Under braking I was able to pass the other riders, but against Binder it was really hard to pass. On the exit, I had something more than him, but on the braking he was really good. I was a little bit disappointed about my last lap, because I couldn't find a way to pass Binder, but anyway it was a good race and I am very happy with today. I am happy with the weekend, but especially with Sunday. It is a great disappointment that the result was not confirmed."
