THREE APRILIA IN Q2: BEZZECCHI FOURTH, FERNÁNDEZ SEVENTH AND OGURA NINETH
Aprilia Racing’s 2025 season officially kicked off with encouraging signs at the Chang International Circuit, where three of its riders secured direct entry into Q2 at the end of the first day of practice.
Marco Bezzecchi quickly rediscovered his strong feeling with the RS-GP25 that had made him one of the standout riders during the Buriram test. The Italian closed FP1 in fifth place, four-tenths off the fastest time. Bezzecchi put in a solid time-attack during the practice session that determines Q2 qualification. However, a slide at turn 3 with two minutes left prevented him from improving his lap time further. Despite this, the Italian rider set the fourth-quickest time, just two-tenths off the session leader, securing direct access to Q2.
Lorenzo Savadori, replacing the injured Jorge Martín, will have to go through Q1 as he could not complete his final time-attack due to two yellow flags.
There were strong performances from Raúl Fernández, seventh in practice, and Ai Ogura, who claimed ninth place in his first top class race weekend.
It was a great day. I’m very happy, and we worked well. In the end, despite the crash, I managed to get into Q2 with a strong time attack. The temperatures were slightly higher than during the test, in the morning and afternoon, which definitely affected track conditions. However, I have to say I felt good. We made a few small adjustments to adapt to the track conditions, and I’m satisfied.
I’m really pleased to see three Aprilia riders in Q2, especially on a track that has historically been difficult for us. This is really good for all of us because it means we are all working in the right direction. As for me, clearly I’m looking for the best set-up, but we know it’s challenging to do this during a race weekend. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make the last time-attack because we got two yellow flags.
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