Raul Fernandez claimed his second victory of the season in the sprint race, teaming up with his teammate Ogura to secure a historic one-two finish for the Trackhouse team. Despite a qualifying session that fell short of expectations—which saw him start fourth from the second row— the Spanish Trackhouse rider was able to “turn a setback into an opportunity,” he told reporters, prevailing over top-tier rivals Bezzecchi, Ogura, and Martin. This result comes at a most opportune time for Trackhouse’s #25, who is still working to shape his future in the premier class.
You’re getting used to these results.
“I hope to have many more days like this where I can say I’ve won,” Raul said, “but it’s not always like that; there are days when you have to suffer and learn. For the past few races, I’ve been feeling really good, and my weekends have been positive; we’re always fighting for good positions. It was an almost perfect Saturday. I don’t agree with the penalty in qualifying because I believe the pole was mine, but the positive thing is that we reacted well—I have a great team behind me. This isn’t the first time I’ve been dissatisfied with qualifying, but it’s another one of those times when we’ve turned things around. We had a good race; with all due respect to Jorge, we saw this week that he didn’t have the same pace, and he was struggling a bit in T3 and T4. I didn’t expect to win, but I got off to a good start, and after passing Marco, I attacked Ai and caught up to Jorge. I attacked him at the chicane, and from there I set my own pace. It was a positive day, but if we want to compete tomorrow, we’ll have to improve in the right-hand turns.”
Does this victory give you even more motivation?
“Yes, I’m someone who gets worked up easily, but I have people around me who help me turn that negative energy into motivation to bounce back until the next opportunity—which today was the sprint.”
Is it also a sort of redemption, especially with an eye toward your future?
"The way I see it, I’m feeling comfortable on the bike and I’m already able to do what I want. I spent many years in MotoGP without being able to do that, and now I can. I’m tapping into my potential; what I need to do is stay calm because the rest isn’t up to me. I focus every day on becoming a better rider and a better person; I work to be happy, and to be happy I need to be able to fight and feel competitive. We’ve had some good conversations with Trackhouse over the past couple of races, but the situation has gotten complicated for reasons beyond our control. Now, though, it’s time to score more points; we’re not in the running for the championship, but we’ve lost points in the last few races.”
Ogura: “I was lucky with that pass on Di Giannantonio”
A second-place finish and a positive Saturday for AI Ogura, who delivered a sprint race in which the Japanese rider—who has shown a marked improvement in recent races— seems to have found the missing piece: a strong qualifying performance. A misstep in the early laps cost him the win and forced him to spend the race chasing his teammate, but his pace was that of a winner, and over the long haul, the #79 is aiming to claim the coveted first victory that Marquez denied him at Brno.
“In the first few laps, on Sky TV Pasini told me that my line through Turn 5 was too wide for the others,” explained the Japanese rider. “It’s a good observation; I’ll need to improve on that in the opening laps tomorrow. Today the track was less challenging than yesterday; as for the tyres, I’ll talk with the team and we’ll decide.”
Toward the end, you managed to pass Di Giannantonio as well.
“It wasn’t my best pass, but it worked out well and we’re both on the podium. I expected to be closer before entering the chicanes, but my approach wasn’t the best. I was lucky it was Fabio; with another rider, something might have happened.”
Did you have enough to catch up to Raul?
"I think I had more at Turn 12, but only at that point."
Victory seems within reach, just like in Brno.
"If I don’t lose positions again at the start… it happened at Brno, and it happened again today."