AI OGURA WITHDRAWS FROM SAN MARINO GP AS TRACKHOUSE CONFIRMS ONE BIKE

Ai Ogura has withdrawn from the San Marino Grand Prix as he continues to recover from a fractured thumb. The Trackhouse rider suffered the injury in a motocross training crash near Tokyo about two weeks earlier, at a time when he was third in the 2026 riders’ standings. Ogura underwent surgery soon after, with surgeon Xavier Mir, but the recovery has still ruled him out of the Aragon Grand Prix and now the San Marino event as well. With Ogura unavailable and unable to be replaced, Trackhouse will enter just one bike for the San Marino GP.

According to Trackhouse’s update, Ogura will also miss the Grand Prix of San Marino and the Riviera di Rimini, meaning he is set to miss a second consecutive race weekend after Aragon. The underlying issue remains the left thumb injury he picked up during motocross training in Japan. After returning to Europe, a fracture was diagnosed, and he was operated on in Barcelona on 27 August.

Ogura had hoped to be back in time to ride again in Misano, but a medical check in Barcelona on Tuesday evening did not deliver the expected outcome. The injured thumb is still not healed enough to withstand the physical demands of a MotoGP race weekend, so he remains in Barcelona focusing on rehabilitation. His next target for a return is the Austria Grand Prix a week later.

Trackhouse team principal Davide Brivio explained the decision to extend the recovery period: “Concerning Ai, we decided to follow the advice of the medical team which recommends to wait for one more week. So, the target is to see if we can get him riding again in Austria.”

With Aprilia test rider Lorenzo Savadori having stepped in at Aragon, the plan for another possible substitute has not materialised this time. Crash.net reports Savadori is “not available to ride this weekend”, leaving Raul Fernandez as Trackhouse’s only representative at Misano.

The timing of the setback could hardly be worse for Ogura’s title challenge. Before the summer break, he had been one of the season’s standout performers and among the most credible contenders for the championship. After the Sachsenring, he went into the summer break in second place, just 14 points behind Aprilia factory rider Jorge Martin. The 2024 Moto2 world champion had established himself at the front in his second MotoGP season, with the highlight being his first MotoGP win at Assen—also the first Japanese triumph in the premier class since Makoto Tamada in 2004.

But the momentum shifted after the summer break. In Silverstone, Ogura showed his pace by finishing second in the sprint, only for him to crash in the Grand Prix and lose valuable points. Then, in Aragon, the thumb injury forced him to watch from the sidelines for the first time. While rivals continued to score, Ogura fell further behind in the standings.

Heading into Misano, Ogura sits on 203 points in fifth place, with Jorge Martin leading the championship on 256. Between them are Marc Marquez on 237, Marco Bezzecchi on 232, and Fabio Di Giannantonio on 208. That puts Ogura 53 points behind the top of the table, and with his direct rivals able to score up to 37 points across sprint and Grand Prix at Misano, he will again be unable to respond on track.

Trackhouse will therefore line up in Misano with only Raul Fernandez. Unlike the Aragon round, when Aprilia test rider Lorenzo Savadori stepped in as a replacement for Ogura, the US team has not nominated an additional rider for the upcoming weekend. Fernandez enters the race on 186 points in seventh place, just 17 points behind his injured teammate.

For Ogura, every day of recovery matters. If he can return in Austria, he will at least have the chance to limit the damage after missing two full MotoGP weekends. Even then, the challenge will be twofold: he will need to regain his speed and form quickly, and he will also be relying on rivals to drop points while he is working his way back.