Ai Ogura and Marco Bezzecchi made contact at Turn 1 during the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang as Ogura tried to take fourth place in the closing laps. Their lines converged and bodywork was sent flying from the Trackhouse machine. Neither rider was forced to retire, allowing both Aprilias to remain in the race.

Two views of the incident

Ogura had spent almost the entire race behind Bezzecchi before finding an opening created by the latter’s lack of drive out of Turn 14 and Turn 3. Afterwards, the Trackhouse rider assigned himself most of the responsibility, describing the split as “70/30”. He said he had not seen Bezzecchi and expected him to hold his line towards Turn 2, while Bezzecchi tried to return to the apex at Turn 1.

Bezzecchi believed Ogura could have delayed the attack by a few corners. In his view, the pass would probably have arrived soon anyway, but the contact was unnecessary because both riders risked crashing. He also stressed that there were no hard feelings between them. Ogura continued to push after getting through and reached the chequered flag less than one second behind Alex Marquez, but the gap was not enough to put him on the podium.

Another position lost late on

Bezzecchi’s race included another difficult moment on the final lap. The front tucked as he applied a small amount of brake, sending him completely off the track and close to a crash. He managed to save the bike, but Enea Bastianini passed him for the position. Bezzecchi had finished third in the Sprint and sixth in the Malaysian Grand Prix. He now sits third in the championship, 23 points behind his injured teammate Jorge Martin.