Can MotoGP’s newest star shine at his team’s home race in the USA?

After a head-turning start to his MotoGP career, rookie Ai Ogura now takes on one of his favourite circuits as Trackhouse gears up for its home event at COTA this weekend.

The Japanese has been the top Aprilia rider across the line in three of the four races so far, but was stripped of a hard-earned eighth place in Argentina - from 15th on the grid - due to a technical infringement.

Nonetheless, the reigning Moto2 champion still holds eighth in the world championship standings with next-best rookie Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini) back in 18th.

Ogura also remains three points clear of factory Aprilia rider Marco Bezzecchi.

His hopes of another impressive display in Texas will also be boosted by Aprilia’s stunning weekend with Maverick Vinales one year ago.

“I finally have the chance to ride the MotoGP bike at the Circuit of the Americas, which is one of my favourite circuits of the calendar and I’m super excited to go there,” Ogura said.

“The track is very nice, the lap is long with a layout has a lot of different types of corners, so maybe it’s good to see what I learned from Thailand and Argentina. 

"Up to now, we are having really good races, really good sessions and we are still on the way to learning a lot of things.

“The target stays the same; gain as much knowledge as I can and be better every time I hit the track. I’ll just keep working and have fun on the track.

“It’s the team’s home GP, so I’ll try to bring some good results for the fans and give my maximum.”

Team director Davide Brivio said: “What happened to Ai in Argentina [with the ECU technical infringement] is behind us, what remains for sure is a great performance from him and this fantastic beginning of the season.

“His talent is coming out and it will be very nice to keep up this momentum and also to have a good performance in Austin.

“This will be our target; to get there, to honour our home Grand Prix in front of all Trackhouse fans, so we can’t wait to get to Austin and will try to get an exciting weekend.”

Team-mate Raul Fernandez, injured in pre-season testing, has been left in Ogura’s shadow so far this year with a best result of 15th.

However, the Spaniard took a pair of ten finishes at COTA last season

“First of all, in America, I’d like to confirm the steps that we made in Argentina because there we expected a little bit more but we saw some issues on the bike, for which I didn’t have time in the pre-season to find solutions,” Fernandez said.

“It came in Argentina and we found a really good solution for the future so, hopefully in Texas, we can confirm the progress we made.

“This is our main goal and of course, I’d like to have a solid weekend and do a good race, as it’s the home round for the team and I hope I can to do a good job for them and all our supporters.”

Brivio believes Fernandez is close to unlocking his potential:

“We think we can get out some good potential also for [Raul] after we found some good settings, a good feeling for him on Sunday in Argentina and now we will try all our best to put everything into the race during the Americas GP.”