Trekhaus driver Ai Ogura took the first victory of his career in the royal class, as he celebrated at the Dutch Grand Prix, the 10th race of the Moto GP championship season.
Ogura became the first Japanese winner in the strongest category after more than two decades, more precisely since the Japanese Grand Prix in 2004, where Makoto Tamada was on the top step of the podium. Exactly 7,952 days passed between those triumphs.
The 25-year-old Japanese previously recorded six victories in the Moto2 category, in which he won the title two years ago, and in the fight for the triumph in Asen, he beat teammate Raul Fernandes by eight tenths. The two of them thus brought a historic result to Trekhaus, which achieved its first double triumph.
The Aprilia duo was joined on the podium by Jorge Martin on Aprilia, who completed the triple victory for the Italian manufacturer, the second in history, after the one in Mugello.
And while Aprilia achieved a triple triumph at the “Cathedral”, the Dutch Grand Prix was a race to forget for Marko Beceki, who flew off the track in the second lap. Until the race in Asen, leading in the general classification, he fell in the 15th corner, he literally flew through the air, and then he was transferred to the Medina center for examinations.
The best among the rest was the driver of the VR46 team Fabio di Đanantonio, despite having to serve a long lap penalty for slightly pushing Marco Marquez in one of the duels. Márquez, by the way, is classified sixth, having lost one position due to going off the track in the last lap.
Martin was the one who took the lead from the start, ahead of Ogura and Fernandes, but at one point Markes broke in front of the Trekhaus duo, and the Japanese dropped to sixth place. The Aprilia driver was increasing his advantage at the front when his team-mate went off the track, followed by Saturday’s sprint winner. It didn’t take long for Ogura to work his way up to third and was a second behind his teammate for a long time.
Behind them, Marques, Francesco Banjaja on the second Ducati and the KTM racing rider Pedro Acosta were leading a great fight. At the halfway point of the race, Akosta gave up due to a problem with his right hand, while Banjaja gave up not long after due to brake failure.
At the front, Fernandes was stalking Martin, while Ogura was also close, and finally they attacked him in the 17th lap, and the Japanese not long after waited for his chance, took the lead and separated by two seconds. Fernandes’ and Martin’s place was never threatened, and behind Markes his younger brother Aleks and Didja caught up. The fight between the driver of the VR46 team and the nine-time world champion was extremely interesting, and even though he served the penalty, the Italian managed to outsmart the older Marquez, who was also ahead of his brother.
At the end of the race, Marques also lost his position to Enea Bastianini from the Teh3 team, followed by Fabio Kvartararo on Yamaha.
After third place, Martin took the lead in the general standings and now has seven points ahead of Beceki, and 16 more than Di Gianantoni.
The next race of the Moto GP championship is for the German Grand Prix at the “Sachsenring” from July 10 to 12.
