The retirement off the track
Already in the days before the Aragon Grand Prix, Trackhouse had suffered a setback with the news of Ai Ogura‘s injury, forced to stay in the ‘box’ for the Spanish weekend after a perfectly successful surgery on the left thumb. Consequently, the American team arrived in Spain with Raul Fernandez and Lorenzo Savadori, Aprilia’s tester called in to replace Ogura, with the latter possibly returning for the Misano GP.
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The retirement on the track
The weekend in Aragon turned into a sporting nightmare, especially for Fernandez. Eighth in the Sprint race, the Spaniard did not even finish the next event, due to a technical problem with his bike that forced him to retire after less than ten laps: “We are a team and we have to be satisfied with the work done – he commented at the end of the GP – this morning, with the setup we tried, I felt good again, so we were better prepared for the race than yesterday. In the first laps, where I had no problems, I felt competitive again. Also, when I saw the gap from the second group, I understood we were on the right track. I know it’s part of the sport, it can happen. I am happy with the work done by my team and I think they are happy with mine too, so now we have to think about Misano.”
Race without particular twists for Savadori, who started from 19th on the grid and finished 17th at the finish line: “Today we made a lot of progress. We reduced the gap from the leaders. It was my first real race of the year because I didn’t race on Sunday in Jerez. We had some difficulties with the front tire during the race, but overall it went quite well. We also tried some new things that worked well, so it was positive. I want to thank the team because it’s not easy to come back after six months and ride this kind of bike, but it was positive. It was also nice to return to the 1000cc, so it was nice to come back and regain the feeling.”
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