Marquez leads Japanese MotoGP warm-up as temperatures increase
Full Japanese MotoGP warm-up results
Marc Marquez has topped the warm-up session for the Japanese MotoGP in hotter conditions at Motegi to provide an ominous warning to his rivals.
Full Japanese MotoGP warm-up results
Marc Marquez has topped the warm-up session for the Japanese MotoGP in hotter conditions at Motegi to provide an ominous warning to his rivals.
The newly-crowned 2019 MotoGP world champion had been anxious over conditions having been fractionally off the pace in the cooler and wet conditions earlier this weekend, but with bright sunshine greeting the 20-minute warm-up session the Repsol Honda rider bolted clear of his rivals.
Using both medium front and rear tyres, Marquez topped warm-up with a fastest lap of 1m 45.816s while demonstrating impressive race pace compared to the rest of the grid.
After trying the soft rear option, Quartararo switched to a fresh medium rear tyre late on to notch up an improvement to move into second place but remained 0.220s off Marquez’s outright best lap.
That saw the Petronas Yamaha rider shuffle Suzuki’s Alex Rins into third place, having also used a medium rear tyre, as he looks to attack from 11th place on the grid at his team’s home race.
Franco Morbidelli slotted into fourth place for Petronas Yamaha as he targets a maiden MotoGP rostrum as Maverick Vinales rounded out the top five for Monster Yamaha.
Valentino Rossi demonstrated overnight gains to move up to sixth place on the factory Yamaha ahead of Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso and LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow.
With Joan Mir in ninth place for Suzuki, Andrea Iannone broke into the top 10 for Aprilia for the first time this weekend to push out Danlio Petrucci on the factory Ducati.
Iannone’s team-mate Aleix Espargaro secured 12th place for Aprilia directly in front of his brother Pol Espargaro as the lead Red Bull KTM.
Pramac Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia edged local hero Takaaki Nakagami who makes his final appearance of the season for LCR Honda ahead of shoulder surgery with Johann Zarco set to fill in for the Japanese rider for the final three rounds of the season.
With Mika Kallio in 16th place for Red Bull KTM, Jack Miller had a low-key warm-up in 17th place for Pramac Ducati but still ahead of Jorge Lorenzo on the Repsol Honda.
Miguel Oliveira (Tech3 KTM), Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki), Karel Abraham (Avintia Ducati) and Hafizh Syahrin (Tech3 KTM) rounded out the warm-up timesheet as Tito Rabat sat out the session nursing a wrist injury for Avintia Ducati.
