The Ducati Lenovo rider returns to Japan, scene of past title glory with Honda, holding a 182-point lead over younger brother Alex.
While Marc Marquez can’t be crowned champion in the Sprint race, he will wrap up his first MotoGP title since 2019 if he holds an advantage of at least 185 points over Alex on Sunday afternoon.
Marc and Alex (Gresini Ducati) are now the only riders still in world championship contention, with Francesco Bagnaia slipping 275 points behind his team-mate.
The Italian – winner of last year’s Japanese Grand Prix - now has a fight on his hands to hold third place, with Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi just eight points adrift after a brilliant 1-2 (Sprint-GP) weekend in Misano.
Meanwhile, KTM's Pedro Acosta could be another contender after taking pole position as a rookie at the 2024 event, before crashing out of both races.
Pitlane is open for Practice.
Funny morning session for championship leader Marc Marquez, who was third fastest but not super comfortable.
He was last in the split times in sector two in FP1, which includes the right-hand hairpin at Turn 5 and the fast, long Turn 6 right.
So, that will be his focus this afternoon.
The reference lap from this morning was a 1m44.857s. The lap record at Motegi is a 1m43.0118s, set last year by Pedro Acosta.
Just 10 minutes to go until pitlane opens for PR.
We saw a number of crashes this morning already and it's been a pretty chaotic end to Moto2 PR as riders pushed for a time attack run.
I think we could be in for the same this afternoon.
It's warm this afternoon at Motegi.
Air temperature is up at 28 degrees C, with track temp nearing 40 degrees C.
As you will have seen scrolling back through this morning's feed, Pecco Bagnaia led the way in FP1 as his "unconventional" changes seemingly paid dividends.
Let's see if that pace carries on into the afternoon session.
Good morning/afternoon - depending on where you are in the world - and welcome back to our live coverage of Friday practice at the 2025 MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix.
Pete McLaren is taking a well-earned break for this session, so I'll keep you company for the next hour or so.
The second MotoGP session of the day begins at 7am UK.
Marc Marquez saves a front-end moment... in-between the practice starts!
Francesco Bagnaia leads FP1 from Jorge Martin, while Aprilia team-mate Marco Bezzecchi has an RS-GP repaired in time to take part in the end-of-session practice starts.
Enea Bastianini crashes at Turn 10 - then Franco Morbidelli and Jack Miller fall moments apart at Turn 5. Morbidelli had just switched to the hard front.
Fabio di Giannantonio takes new hard front and medium rear tyres to fourth.
Martin now rises to 2nd, 0.093s behind Bagnaia.
Meanwhile, team-mate Jorge Martin is the first rider to fit the favoured medium front tyre plus a new soft and jumps up to 3rd.
Martin has been struggling for time-attack qualifying speed, explaining the move.
Marco Bezzecchi is still watching his team work on his damaged RS-GPs in the Aprilia pits. It doesn't look like he'll be back out this morning and therefore also miss the practice starts.
Into the final 7mins and KTM's Pedro Acosta heads out on a new hard front tyre, after using the soft until now.
Luca Marini is on a charge, climbing to 3rd place behind the Ducati Lenovo duo. Marini is on a new hard front and old medium rear tyre.
Bagnaia is back out and setting red sectors... The Italian replaces Marc Marquez at the top by 0.102s.
Meanwhile, rookie Somkiat Chantra is turning heads on new tyres, rising to 5th. The LCR rider is expected to join Jake Dixon in Honda's WorldSBK team next year.
15mins to go:
Bezzecchi is back in the Aprilia pits but must now wait for a bike to be ready.
Marc Marquez hits the top on his 13th lap, moving 0.008s ahead of team-mate Bagnaia.
Bagnaia is back in the pit box, looking animated as he gives feedback to his crew.
Bezzecchi falls again! This time at Turn 5, another front-end accident on the soft front. The Italian walks away unharmed but will need to hope one of his bikes can be salvaged to continue the session.
Is that a warning that the soft front is too soft? Team-mate Jorge Martin is on the hard front.
