2025 Japanese Moto2 - Friday Practice Results

Jake Dixon smashed the lap record to finish Friday fastest ahead of the Moto2 Japanese Grand Prix, round seventeen of the championship.

The Elf Marc VDS rider, who was on pole in Japan last year, had already worked his way back to the top of the timesheets after having another fast lap cancelled by yellow flags, when right at the end of the session, the British rider put in a final push to go faster again on his Boscoscuro, with a new lap record of 1m 48.679s.

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Dixon hitting the top pushed back home rider, RW Idrofoglia’s Ayumu Sasaki, who had shot to the top of the times with his first flying lap, which held firm for a good chunk of the session, and landing the Japanese rider second, just 0.149s slower aboard the Kalex.

Izan Guevara looked improved on his Blu Cru Pramac Yamaha, putting in 14 laps it was his twelfth effort which took him to a late third.

Championship leader Gonzalez, the 2024 winner in Japan, left it even later to make an impression in a fairly static session, his last lap pushing the Liqui Moly Dynavolt Intact GP bike to fourth.

Tony Arbolino could not quite match his second from the first track session, but was still an improved fifth after his arm pump surgery between rounds loosened up the Italian on the second Pramac bike.

Daniel Holgado took over as top rookie for Aspar, chipping away at his time while most riders were in the pits saw him rise to sixth after finishing the morning session 24th.

Joe Roberts was also heading in the right direction, with the seventh best time for American Racing ahead of title challenger Diogo Moreira, who was a close eighth for Italtrans.

Zonta van den Goorbergh’s early effort clung to ninth on the second RW Idrofoglia bike, completing a strong day for the tea, with Collin Veijer completing the top ten for Red Bull KTM Ajo despite being thrown violently from his bike in the session, walking away from the crash.

Celestino Vietti also used the clear track time form the masses entering th pits to improve, taking his SpeedRS Boscoscuro to eleventh.

Moto2 has just one replacement rider, with Daniel Munoz remaining at Red Bull KTM Ajo heading into the flyaway portion of the championship, in place of the recovering Deniz Oncu, making the most of his opportunity to show his race craft with an automatic Q2 slot in twelfth.

The remaining places went to Ivan Ortola for QJMotor - Frinsa - MSI in 13th and Gresini’s Albert Arenas in 14th.

Filip Salac was just shuffled out towards the end of the session, moving into a loaded Q1, which will also feature Alonso Lopez , David Alonso and both crashing Fantic riders - Aron Canet, who desperately tried to recover his bike from the marshals to return to the pits, and Barry Baltus.

There was a further crash at the start of the session for Unai Orradre (28th).

There is a second home rider in Japan - Yuki Kunii at Honda Team Asia who was 26th.

Moto2’s first session, FP1, saw the riders who had shone at the track before on top with Dixon setting what was then a new lap record to finish on top, ahead of fellow Boscoscuro rider Arbolino, as he continued his uptick in from, with Gonzalez third.

Alonso was the top rookie for Aspar in fourth- teammate Holgado was 24th after a fall at the turn ten hairpin.

Salac also fell in the session, while Baltus tested the gravel on more than one occasion.