Japanese MotoGP - Warm-up Results: Martin leads, Marquez falls

* Rookie

Official Motegi MotoGP records:
Best lap:
Jorge Lorenzo SPA Yamaha 1m 43.790s (2015)
Fastest race lap:
Jorge Lorenzo SPA Yamaha 1m 45.350s (2014)

Jorge Martin leads a sunny morning warm-up for the Japanese MotoGP at Motegi.

With only one dry session (the lone Friday practice) heading into race day, choosing between the soft and medium rear tyre options was expected to be top of the priority list for most riders this morning.

However, hard rears also made an appearance, especially for the Ducatis, in response to the best weather of the weekend.

With eight bikes on the grid, it was probably not by accident that the Italian factory had some riders on each of the three tyre options this morning, Gresini's Enea Bastianini and Fabio di Giannantonio putting laps on the soft rear.

Yamaha's world championship leader Fabio Quartararo, who will start just 9th on the grid, set the early pace on a hard front and medium rear, with the Desmosedicis of Jack Miller (hard-hard), Jorge Martin (hard-medium) and Francesco Bagnaia (hard-hard) close behind.

Pramac's Martin, fifth in qualifying, then moved ahead of Quartararo to finish 0.285s clear.

Factory Ducati team-mates, Miller and Bagnaia, a frustrated 12th in the wet on Saturday, with Aprilia's Maverick Vinales and Aragon winner Bastianini (just 15th on the grid) completing the top six.

Repsol Honda's Marc Marquez, who took his first pole position in three years during Saturday's wet qualifying, but has been playing down his chances in the dry, fell on his final lap while trying the hard-hard tyres on his way to seventh.

The Spaniard's fall was an exact replica of an accident for team-mate Pol Espargaro, at the same Turn 9, earlier in the session.

VR46's Marco Bezzecchi was another late faller, at Turn 10.

Aleix Espargaro, who will head the title trio by starting sixth on the grid, stopped a few metres after leaving the Aprilia pits with some kind of issue with the front of his RS-GP.

The problem was soon corrected and the Spaniard went on to claim eighth ahead of Johann Zarco, who starts second this afternoon, and KTM's Miguel Oliveira.

KTM team-mate Brad Binder, who will start from his first MotoGP front row this afternoon, was 13th.

HRC wild-card Tetsuta Nagashima had a problem on his out lap.

• Japanese MotoGP, Motegi - Full Qualifying Results

Just 17 points cover Fabio Quartararo, Francesco Bagnaia and Aleix Espargaro at the top of the MotoGP World Championship standings as the series head into the unknown with its first Asian and Australian races since 2019.

Quartararo’s opening lap accident with Marc Marquez at Aragon, combined with Bagnaia’s second place behind Enea Bastianini, has put the factory Ducati star just 10 points from the Monster Yamaha rider, with Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro also back in the hunt in third.

Home star Takaaki Nakagami has been passed fit to ride despite requiring surgery for injuries to his fingers in last Sunday’s clash with Marquez at Aragon.

The tight travel window to transport freight from Aragon to Motegi means a revised practice schedule in Japan, with a delayed and extended opening practice session running from 15:05-16:20 on Friday. Free Practice 2 is pushed over to Saturday morning with FP3 will be reduced to 30-minutes (replacing the usual FP4), followed by Qualifying 1 and Qualifying 2.

The absence of Motegi from the calendar in both 2020 and 2021, due to Covid restrictions, means ten of the full-time riders have never raced at the circuit in the premier class: Brad Binder, Alex Marquez, Jorge Martin, Enea Bastianini, Luca Marini, plus this year’s rookies Marco Bezzecchi, Fabio di Giannantonio, Darryn Binder, Remy Gardner and Raul Fernandez.

Also on track this weekend will be Suzuki test rider Takuya Tsuda and Honda test rider Tetsuta Nagashima. Both have been entered as wild-cards in front of their home fans this weekend, although Tsuda will now technically be replacing the injured Joan Mir.

Following Andrea Dovizioso’s retirement, Yamaha test rider Cal Crutchlow will be starting his second weekend at RNF, where he will complete the season alongside Darryn Binder. Unlike most of the grid, Crutchlow has some private testing experience at Motegi this year.

Japanese MotoGP - Full race weekend schedule (UK time)

Friday September 23rd 

05:15 - 05:55am Moto3 FP1

06:10 - 06:50am Moto2 FP1

07:05 - 08:20 MotoGP FP1

Saturday September 24th

01:00 - 01:40 Moto3 FP2

01:55 - 02:35 Moto2 FP2

02:50 - 03:35 MotoGP FP2

04:35 - 04:50 Moto3 Q1

05:00 - 05:15 Moto3 Q2

05:30 - 05:45 Moto2 Q1

05:55 - 06:10 Moto2 Q2

06:25 - 06:55 MotoGP FP3

07:05 - 07:20 MotoGP Q1

07:30 - 07:45 MotoGP Q2

Sunday September 25th 

02:00 - 02:10 Moto3 Warm Up

02:20 - 02:30 Moto2 Warm Up

02:40 - 03:00 MotoGP Warm Up

04:00 Moto3 Race

05:20 Moto2 Race

07:00 MotoGP Race