MotoGP Portimao: Ogden happy with ‘top ten progress’

VisionTrack’s Scott Ogden opened his 2023 Moto3 account with a top ten showing in Friday practice at Portimao.

Having impressed in preseason testing, Ogden continued to refine his Honda for the Algarve International’s undulating layout ahead of the opening race of his sophomore season. Choosing a laid back approach to Friday’s cool morning practice before bedding in a new engine for round one.

As the afternoon temperatures increased, so did the Brit’s pace - by over a second - as he claimed ninth in the combined times with a 1’48.112 effort after as many laps.

“Overall, it was a good day,” Ogden told Bikesportnews.com from Portugal. “The first session, we started with the hard tyre and there was a lot less grip than in the test so it was just about finding a nice setup and just getting back up to speed from the test. We knew as a team that that session wouldn’t be very fast so we didn’t look to go fast.

“The second session was good. I feel when we put the new engine was a little slower than the older engine, just because it takes a few sessions to get warm and loose and fast but by the end it was quite good and we were able to make a little bit of progress.

“Overall, it was good. I wanted to be around the top ten today, because I knew in the race I could do better than that. So top ten today is good. We’re in Q2 at the moment and I feel like we’ve got a good setup going into the weekend. There’s a few guys who are a bit faster but we can definitely get there eventually.”