Ai Ogura says a clear rider error was the cause of his Silverstone MotoGP crash.
In many cases, riders can crash without knowing why, but this was not the case for Ai Ogura after he fell from the Silverstone MotoGP race.
Ogura had dropped back at the start, but was running in fifth on lap 10 when he crashed at the final chicane.
The cause of the fall, according to the Japanese rider, was clear when he spoke to the media.
“A bit more angle with the same amount of brake pressure,” said Ai Ogura after the race at Silverstone.
The crash cost Ogura 20 points to MotoGP championship leader Jorge Martin, who is now 37 points clear of the Japanese rider. But Ogura thinks there remains parity between himself and the other Aprilia riders in terms of performance.
“I feel like we all are very close,” the Trackhouse Racing rider said. “In one weekend, two guys are really strong; in another weekend, another two guys are really strong.Â
“There will be up-and-down, but it’s really small.Â
“Just this time Raul [Fernandez] was really strong.Â
“When I saw his data after the Warm Up today, I could see definitely it was his day and my target was to finish P3, P4 more or less. But wasn’t good enough.”
The start of the race was also complicated for Ogura, whose start device didn’t disengage as he braked for turn one, leaving him with no rear suspension for the first two corners.
“Wasn’t sure about Raul [Fernandez] and Jorge [Martin],” Ogura explained.
“I was just adapting to them and I forgot to brake hard enough to turn off the rear device, and I lost a couple of positions.Â
“But nothing scary, I just couldn’t lean like usual.”
Ogura also thinks the turn one problem cost him a shot at the podium, even without the crash.