– At the Italian Grand Prix, third place was only decided in the final meters in a close duel. After Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) had to let the Aprilia duo Marco Bezzecchi and Jorge Martin go, his lap times dropped increasingly in the last quarter of the race.
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From behind, Ai Ogura (Trackhouse-Aprilia) caught up more and more. Around halfway through the race, the Japanese rider was about six seconds behind Bagnaia. At the start of the last lap, Ogura had caught up to the Ducati.
“When I started the last lap with a 1.4-second lead over Ogura, I said: He will catch up because he is usually incredibly strong in the last laps,” Bagnaia describes his thoughts.
“And then I heard his motorcycle in turn 12 and said: Okay, I have to brake harder in the last corner than I actually can to leave him no space. And if he tries to overtake me, we will be carried wide.”
Exactly that happened. Ogura cut inside at Bucine, the final corner, but could not hold the apex and was carried outwards. Bagnaia then used this gap.
At the corner exit, Bagnaia was ahead. His Ducati accelerated towards the finish line and left the Aprilia no chance. “My motorcycle was a real missile, so it was hard to overtake me again.”
“In the last corner, the rear wheel spun strongly, so I just tried to get the best possible exit. I leaned forward strongly so that the motorcycle wouldn’t do a wheelie.”
“That was enough to stay on the podium. But also thanks to my engine, because it was really very strong. So the strategy was right, but at the limit, maybe a bit too much at the limit.”
“Because losing the podium in the last corner after such a race would have been an emotional disaster. So I tried everything. I gave my maximum today.”
Nevertheless, Bagnaia was lucky because the lap display on his screen showed an incorrect value. “I was a bit confused because my motorcycle still showed two laps.”
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“Yes, two laps on the display, but then I came out of the last corner and saw the checkered flag. Then I said: ‘Okay, thank you, thank you very much. Thank you, because another lap would have made it impossible to stay ahead.”
Ogura puts his comebacks into perspective
Ogura missed third place by only 0.034 seconds. Immediately after the race, the disappointment was visible on the Japanese rider in the box. But he knew it would have been difficult to overtake Bagnaia anyway.
“The maneuver in the last lap was just … I mean, of course I gave my best, but I knew I wouldn’t finish on the podium,” says Ogura.
“I told myself: If I just finish this race behind ‘Pecco’, then that’s not really … So I tried. I knew he would come back, but that’s okay.”
In Mugello, it was once again noticeable that Ogura was among the fastest riders in the field in the last quarter of the race, if not the fastest. His comebacks are now seen in almost every race.
He himself puts this into perspective: “Yes, but they used the tire at the beginning to build a gap, and I didn’t use it at the beginning. So it depends on when you want to use the tire.”
“That varies from rider to rider. I think they used the tire at the beginning to build a gap. That was their strategy. My strategy was to save the tire and keep something for the end.”
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In the world championship, Ogura overtook his teammate Raul Fernandez again and is fifth. Bagnaia is seventh in the championship after his second consecutive third place.
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