Ai Ogura, currently 6th in the MotoGP 2026 championship standings, is only racing in his second season in the premier class. But with his first win at the Dutch GP this year, there is clear promise for the Japanese rider. He has become the first winner of his nation since 2004.
With seven race weekends left this season and 14 more races to obtain some points, Ogura still has plenty of opportunities to keep in the championship battle with the rest of his Aprilia competitors. All four of them currently sit above 7th in the standings. Marc Márquez, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Pedro Acosta also join them in between.
His Journey From Pre-Moto3 To Moto3
The rider from Kiyose first began participating on a pocket bike at just four years old, later moving to minibikes. The Asia Talent Cup soon came to recruit him in 2015. This got him into Moto3 with the Asia Talent Team, the 2017 Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup and soon the Honda Team Asia in 2019. He joined alongside another Japanese rider, Kaito Toba, as the team continued to show support for their home racers.
Although he never won across these two seasons, Ogura managed to gain three second place podiums. The championship battle even came right down to the end with Tony Arbolino and Albert Arenas in Portugal. He ultimately finished that final season with Honda Team Asia in third place.
By Box Repsol – FIM CEV Repsol 2018. Valencia 2. Moto3. Podio 2, CC BY 2.0,
Moto2 Hits And Misses
His consistency and cool nature eventually got him a seat in Moto2 with Idemitsu Honda Team Asia. With rising to Moto2 after Moto3 arguably being more difficult than the switch from Moto2 to MotoGP, Ogura continued to stay in those top ten positions throughout the entire season with the exception of the first round in Qatar. Although he missed the last round in Valencia due to a small left-foot fracture and lost out the ‘Rookie of the Year’ award to current MotoGP teammate, Raúl Fernández.
For the next two seasons in the team, he would achieve his first win in Jerez where he started from pole position, taking 2nd in the standings in 2022. He had lost to Augusto Fernández after crashing in Valencia but failed to improve a year later, finishing 9th. For 2023, he started the season two weekends later in COTA. This was due to a training accident that left him with a broken wrist, missing the Portuguese and Argentinian GP.
2024 would reveal a new story as he left for MT Helmets – MSi with Boscoscuro. His first race win in Barcelona signified his consistency for the first half of the season as his teammate Sergio García remained as championship leader. In August, it was announced that he would be riding for Trackhouse Racing in MotoGP next season. He showed great promise from here, even with a wrist injury and was championship leader after the San Marino GP. He kept this lead and a second place finish in Thailand landed him with the Moto2 championship title.
By Liauzh – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
His MotoGP Career So Far
After winning the Moto2 championship, it was back to business at the start of the 2025 season with Trackhouse Racing. He replaced WorldSBK-bound Miguel Oliveira and partner with Raúl Fernández up until today. For his rookie season, he came 16th in the standings with a 6th place in Catalunya being his best result. This was ahead of rookies Somkiat Chandra but behind Fermín Aldeguer.
Today is a different story as he sits 6th in the championship and took his first win at the iconic Assen circuit. He shared the podium with Fernández and Aprilia Racing’s Jorge Martín. This was Aprilia’s first ever win at the circuit and second-ever podium lockout in premier-class history.
The last Japanese MotoGP rider was Takaaki Nakagami. He raced with Idemitsu Honda LCR back in 2024 and still competes as a wildcard rider for Honda. His highest standing in his MotoGP career came in 2019 when he was 13th. However, the last winning Japanese MotoGP rider was 22 years ago with Makoto Tamada who won his home race back in 2004. At Suzuka, Valentino Rossi and Shinya Nakano joined him on the podium. He overtook the Italian on Lap 7 and kept him behind right to the end of the 24 lap race. He finished 6th in the standings.
Ai Ogura’s presence is well established in MotoGP even in his second season. Although venturing away from Honda’s support in Moto2 may have provided him with a brilliant opportunity at the independent Aprilia team where all bikes have been competitive.
The 2026 Championship Battle
Everything Trackside caught up with him at the British GP to discuss how far Trackhouse have come in terms of competitiveness and how close they are coming to the factory Aprilia team. This is usually an uncommon scenario, most recently being Jorge Martín winning the 2024 MotoGP championship with an independent team. This is still the only time this had happened in the MotoGP era. So can Ogura take the championship battle to the team?
“I feel like we all are very, very close.”
“In one weekend, two guys are very strong and the other weekend, the other two guys are stronger. They’ll be up and down, but it’s really small.”
“When I saw Raul’s data after after the warm-up [at the British GP], I could see between his data and mine. My target was to finish P3 before mistake, but now, as in good enough.”
Image courtesy of MotoGP
Unfortunately, this was not the case for the Japanese rider as he crashed out of the race on Lap 10. This let Bezzecchi take 2nd place in the standings. After this weekend, it was revealed that Ogura had a metacarpal fracture in his left hand near the thumb and that he would sit out from the Aragon Grand Prix. Two weeks later, when the San Marino Grand Prix rolled around, it was also confirmed he would also miss out on this round.
Over a month later and he was back for the Austrian GP. By landing himself a 4th place finish and 13 extra points in the standings, he inches closer to Di Giannantonio who only sits eight points ahead.
What’s next?
It was revealed mid-season that Ai Ogura would be moving from the independent team to Yamaha Factory Racing for next year. This is alongside Jorge Martín, both leaving the Aprilia manufacturer for the Italian-Japanese team. Yamaha currently sit at the bottom of the current manufacturer standings compared to Aprilia at the top. But with the 2027 technical regulations changing, the playing field could shake up like never before seen in recent years. Enea Bastianini was revealed to be taking his seat alongside the Spaniard at Trackhouse.
Image courtesy of MotoGP
We can hope that Ogura will continue to remain as competitive as possible for the rest of the season, even if an injury has set him back for two round so far and his allegiance lies with Yamaha in 2027. But the Japanese rider is against three other riders on Aprilia bikes who are also showing great results. Each of them having at least one win across the 2026 season. The threat of Marc Márquez on the Ducati also shows another hurdle this season as he continues his recovery from 2025.
With so many pressures coming from inside and outside of the box, all we know is that Ogura will naturally keep a cool head in the championship fight.
MotoGP continues this weekend for the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi, with FP1 & Practice commencing this Friday, one more Free Practice session, Qualifying and the Sprint Race on Saturday and the full-length Race on Sunday.
Feature image courtesy of MotoGP