OGURA FEARS STRUGGLING IF RAIN HITS PHILLIP ISLAND

Ai Ogura arrived at Phillip Island expecting little from himself. The Trackhouse rider had struggled at the Australian circuit the previous year, often sitting in the lower part of the timesheets, and said before the weekend that he had modest expectations. Friday, however, brought a welcome surprise: he qualified directly for Saturday’s Q2 by setting the fourth-fastest time in the afternoon session.

Ogura had started the day with eighth place in the opening practice, which he called his best performance yet at the track. He said he had not expected to be among the top 10, let alone the five quickest riders. His afternoon lap time matched Marc Marquez’s to the thousandth of a second; Marquez had topped the morning session.

The Japanese rider credited the warmer conditions for his improved feel. “It’s warmer. That gives me more feeling for the front, so I can push harder, and then everything comes by itself,” he explained.

The forecast threatened to make the rest of the weekend much tougher. Rain and cooler temperatures were expected from Saturday, conditions Ogura identified as a particular weakness. “I’m going to have problems, I can predict that much,” he said. He was even more blunt about his prospects: “I’m going to be very slow!”

Ogura said he would still give his all in the wet, but building confidence on a rain-soaked track takes him time. “It’s my weak point. I need much more time to build confidence in bad weather. But overcoming that is a problem that takes time,” he said.

The former Moto2 world champion has had limited wet-weather experience during his less than two seasons in MotoGP. If the forecast proved accurate, Phillip Island would offer further opportunities to gain that experience—though Ogura expected the change in conditions to test him far more than Friday’s dry sessions had.