Marc Marquez predicts “difficult” Japanese MotoGP qualifying with unusual tyre trait
Marc Marquez is expecting a tough MotoGP qualifying session in Japan, with the field spread extremely small on Friday at Motegi.
A “difficult” qualifying session awaits Marc Marquez, he thinks, at the Japanese MotoGP after finishing third-fastest in Practice.
All in all it was a good day for Marquez, who was behind Pedro Acosta and Alex Marquez but ahead of his two main title rivals, Marco Bezzecchi and Jorge Martin, in the final Friday times.
The Spaniard finished the day happy with his feeling but wary of the close field spread, with just over a second separating the first 19 riders in Practice at the newly-resurfaced Mobility Resort Motegi.
“The feeling was good, the new surface works well and the grip was very high,” said Marc Marquez after Practice.
“This makes that everything is very equal.
“[We need to] keep working because we need to understand the rear tyre especially. Looks like the bike balance is changing between one tyre and the other one, and still time to work.”
The tight times will lead to a tough qualifying, Marquez added, while the durability of the soft-compound rear tyre should give riders more margin when pushing for ultimate lap time.
“Tomorrow will be a difficult qualifying because everyone will be very fast,” the Ducati Lenovo Team rider said.
“The fact that here it looks like here with the rear tyre you have not only one chance, one lap – two, three laps still the rear tyre is working well.
“So, this makes that everybody will be very fast because the most difficult for the time attack is [when the tyre can only do a] single lap; but here you have more time, or more options, to do the lap time.”
Although the field is close, there is a standout rider in Marquez’s opinion, the same rider who took his first MotoGP victory last time out in Austria.
“I think at the moment Pedro [Acosta] is the fastest one, on race pace and also on the time attack compared to me,” he said.
“Alex [Marquez] did a very good time attack with the soft tyre, struggled a bit more with the medium.
“Looks like the ones that used the soft were very fast, so tomorrow we need to try the soft.
“But on time attack, as we saw, Bezzecchi, Ogura, Martin also were all the time there – the same as always.”
Alex joined the Crash.net team in August of 2024 having covered consumer and racing motorcycle news at Visordown for two years.
