MotoGP Japanese GP: Alex Marquez heads the field at Motegi

Alex Marquez was the fastest man on Friday at the Japanese Grand Prix, as all of the top championship contenders made it directly into Saturday’s Qualifying 2 session. 

Home hero Ai Ogura, however, will need to go through the Qualifying 1 session in order to get his weekend back on track, as he failed to make the cut.

Before the session was even 10 minutes old, there had been considerable drama. While Fermin Aldeguer remained marooned in the Gresini garage, his Ducati undergoing work, both Alex Rins (Yamaha) and Luca Marini (Honda) fell off their respective locally-made mounts.

Next up, Ogura’s Aprilia went pop in extrovert fashion, right in front of the pits. The latest Trackhouse technical failure dropped oil on the circuit, bringing out the red flags while the new Motegi surface was cleaned up.

After a quiet middle part of the session following the resumption, during which the riders experimented with various compounds in mild temperatures of around 23 degrees, the field began to push for their tickets into Q2 with around 20 minutes to go.

Bezzecchi, who looked more confident on track than he had for some time, landed the first blow, edging Acosta and Marc Marquez on the first round of attacking laps.

Championship leader Jorge Martin also had a solid lap in the bank and was stationed in fifth. Sixth and seventh were Diogo Moreira and Johann Zarco, adding some credence to the idea that Honda’s test work around Motegi could give its riders a slight leg up the leaderboard this weekend.

With a few minutes of the session left and the shadows lengthening in Japan, out went the riders once more for the final flurry of efforts on fresh softs. 

Zarco’s did not go well, as he suffered a heavy fall at the final corner, interrupting a promising Bezzecchi lap. But Alex Marquez most certainly did find form as he shot to the top of the timesheets with a minute remaining.

Behind him Pedro Acosta, Marc Marquez and Bezzecchi all did more than enough to earn their direct tickets to Q2, despite Moreira also bringing out a yellow flag with a late crash. Martin was also comfortably in, with eighth-fastest time despite failing to improve on the last run.

Despite Zarco and Moreira tumbling, they managed to hang on to top 10 spots by the skin of their teeth, as Aldeguer and Ogura were unable to bump them out of Q2 with their last efforts. 

Factory Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia endured another Friday battle, failing to threaten the top 10 at all.

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– The Motorsport.com Team

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