Mario Aji's Hopes of Moving Up to Moto2 Class Dashed After LCR Honda Retains Nakagami?

Indonesian Racer On Honda Team Asia, Mario Suyo Aji. (Doc. Honda Team Asia)

JAKARTA - LCR Honda officially announced the extension of Takaaki Nakagami's contract. The Japanese racer will continue to race with the team for MotoGP 2024.

In its statement, LCR said, Nakagami is the racer who knows Honda best. Apart from that, the team led by Lucio Cecchinello also took into account the experience of the 31-year-old racer.

"The team and HRC have agreed with Nakagami for next year to continue developing the bike and fighting for important positions," said a team statement, reported by Motorsport.

LCR Honda's certainty about extending Nakagami's contract has clearly dashed the hopes of another Japanese racer, Ai Ogura, to move up to MotoGP. The opportunity for Indonesian racer, Mario Suryo Aji, to move up to Moto2 was also threatened.

Previously, a scenario emerged that Mario Aji would move up to the Moto2 class to replace Ai Ogura if the Honda Team Asia racer moved up to the MotoGP class.

However, Mario Aji's hopes of keeping promotion open again. The reason is, Ogura surprisingly decided to move teams for the 2024 Moto2 season.

The future Japanese racer joined the debut team in Moto2, MTHelmets-MSi. He will duet with Sergio Garcia Dols.

That means, there will be one slot on the Honda Team Asia team for Moto2 next season. Possibly, that position will be given to Mario Aji.

However, there is news that this position could also be given to Taiyo Furusato, Mario Aji's teammate in Moto3. Moreover, Furusato's recent performance has been much better than Mario Aji.

In the last two races, Furusato managed to steal points. Meanwhile, Mario Aji is still having difficulty finding his best performance.