This Saturday morning, the pilots of MotoGP are competing in Qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi. But before that, they all returned to the track for Free Practice 2. A session dominated by Pedro Acosta, poleman of the last edition, in 1:44.108. The Spaniard is ahead of the local driver, Ai Ogura, and Marc Marquez. Like the day before, three brands were in the top three positions, which promised to be a hard-fought Qualifying.
Qualification 1:
In Q1, the clear favorite was Alex Marquez, after his failed Friday. However, Marc’s only mathematical rival in the championship once again failed to make it through the session. For most of those fifteen minutes, Franco Morbidelli and Ai Ogura occupied the top two positions on the scoreboard, which meant they qualified for Q2.
In his final effort, Alex Marquez finished second, 14 thousandths of a second behind the VR46 rider. But he’s not guaranteed his qualification. Behind him, Jorge Martin and Ai Ogura are engaged in promising laps that could propel them to the top of the standings.
However, just before completing their attempt, Brad Binder crashed in the very last sector of the circuit and forced them to slow down in the final corners of their timed lap. Their lap times were canceled due to yellow flags. For Ai Ogura, the disappointment was palpable: he narrowly missed out on Q2 on home soil. The misfortune relegated Jorge Martin to 17th place, while Alex Marquez made it through.
Qualification 2:
At the end of everyone’s first attempts, the ranking is surprising: Pecco Bagnaia takes provisional pole position, ahead of Marc. fabio quartararo then completes the front row. The three men are within 150 thousandths of a second of each other, while Aprilia and KTM, the fastest in the morning and since the start of the weekend, are slightly behind.
The second round of qualifying held many more surprises for us. Five minutes from the end of the session, Joan Mir took the lead, with a solid time, while no one seemed able to improve on him. He was surprised by Pecco Bagnaia’s final effort, and narrowly missed out on pole position, but gave Honda a superb front row on home soil.
For his part, the Italian is back on pole position. His time of 1:42.911 even allows him to set a new lap record at Motegi. Marc Marquez completes the front row. Knowing that his only rival for the title race, Alex Marquez, finished 8th in this session, the weekend scenario is rather favorable for him so far.
On the French side, Fabio Quartararo clocked 5th place in the time trial, behind Pedro Acosta. Johann Zarco, for his part, will start from 11th place on the starting grid.
MotoGP – Japanese GP
Q2 ranking:
Ranking : MotoTiming
ALSO READ > Japanese GP – Tests: Bezzecchi fastest, French in Q2
AloJapan.com