Japanese MotoGP: Francesco Bagnaia fastest in opening practice
Francesco Bagnaia carries his Misano test progress into Motegi, topping FP1 at the Japanese MotoGP.
Francesco Bagnaia’s Misano test progress carried over to opening MotoGP practice in Japan, where the Italian topped the timesheets.
Aside from a brief interruption by team-mate and champion-elect Marc Marquez, Bagnaia - reported to be using a 2024 spec fork and swingarm on his GP25 - was fastest from the 11-minute mark.
Aprilia’s Jorge Martin got closest to last year's double Motegi winner, but only after fitting new medium front-soft rear tyres for a phantom time attack – his weakest area on the RS-GP.
The rest of the top seven, including third-place Marc Marquez, finished on hard front tyre and medium rears.
Marquez, who needs to outscore brother Alex by three points to be crowned champion on Sunday, was 12 places ahead of the Gresini rider this morning.
Fabio di Giannantonio (VR46), Luca Marini (Honda), Franco Morbidelli (VR46), Pedro Acosta (KTM) followed, with Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha) joining Martin on a new soft rear tyre in the closing minutes.
Rookie Somkiat Chantra enjoyed his strongest session in the premier class with ninth for LCR Honda, with Miller’s team-mate Miguel Oliveira completing the top ten.
Monster Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo was pushed down to 16th, but used one set of tyres throughout and was only 0.660s from Bagnaia!
Double misery for Bezzecchi
Misano Sprint winner and Grand Prix runner-up Marco Bezzecchi began the session strongly, then watched much of it from the Aprilia garage after crashing twice from his RS-GP on the soft front tyre.
Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez was another early faller, while the session ended with yellow flags for Enea Bastianini (Tech3), then a Morbidelli-Miller synchronised fall at Turn 5.
All riders walked away unharmed.
Lap times could improve significantly when riders fit the medium front - last year’s preferred race tyre - in afternoon Practice, which will also decide the top ten riders with direct Qualifying 2 access.
The one-hour session starts at 3pm local time.
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Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
