Brad Binder on top after Friday practice sessions at Motegi

MotoGP 2023

Round 14 – Japanese Grand Prix

MotoGP Friday Practice

Jack Miller went down halfway through the Friday afternoon session at turn 11 but was up unhurt and managed to ride back to the pits.  Jorge Martin also ran off the circuit around this time but rejoined without incident.

With rain forecast for tomorrow, Friday afternoon saw MotoGP riders let it all hang over the last 15 minutes in order to secure their place in the top ten and thereby earn automatic qualification for the Q2 session which is scheduled to get underway at 1215 (AEST) on Saturday afternoon.

Fabio Quartararo went down at turn six while ranked fifth with 13-minutes remaining in the session. The Frenchman walked away but was a bit shaken as it was a somewhat hefty tumble. His front folded when almost completely upright on the exit of the tunnel after running a little too wide over the kerbs.

As riders came in for their final tyre change Fabio Di Giannantonio had just gone top of the time-sheets with a 1m43.947, pushing Brad Binder down to second and Maverick Vinales down to third.

With five-minutes left on the shot clock almost every rider was on track shod with new rubber for their final runs.

Bagnaia was on a good lap but exceeded track limits which saw him pull out of that one and save some rubber for another attempt. Red sectors were now being lit up everywhere…

Aleix Espargaro the first to displace Di Giannantonio on top, but that lasted only seconds before Brad Binder went under the all-time lap record with a 1m43.489 to push the Aprilia man back to second.

Raul Fernandez then went down at turn three which saw the yellow flags briefly out in sector three…

Bagnaia had been on course to beat Binder’s new benchmark but he lost a little ground in the final sector which saw him go second.

And that is how it finished, Binder on top from Bagnaia and Aleix Espargaro.

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Jorge Martin fourth ahead of Marco Bezzecchi and Fabio Di Giannantonio.

Johann Zarco seventh ahead of Maverick Vinales and Pol Espargaro while Jack Miller is the last rider to secure a spot in Q2.

No Japanese bike in the top ten.

Marc Marquez was in 13th but went down on his hot final lap so is destined for Q1 tomorrow, where he will be joined by the likes of Fabio Quartararo, Miguel Oliveira and Joan Mir.

Alex Rins has withdrawn from the MotoGP after deciding his return from injury was a little too early.

MotoGP Rider Quotes

Brad Binder – P1

“Top of the sheets on day 1 in Japan. Feeling happy with our Friday… most important thing was to make it through to Q2 so that’s job well done. Thanks to my team as always.”

Francesco Bagnaia – P2

“Finally, I found the way to be back on the top. it was a long time that I was not fast on a Friday, so I’m happy about that and happy for the step at the front that I did in terms of braking. Now, I can push again like I was doing before. We’re still missing something. I’m not completely happy, but I have to say that we’re really close to sorting things out. I managed to improve cornering, which in the last GPs has always been difficult for me because the bike always tended to take me a little wide. I am happy that we’ve identified what the problem was. Now, we’ll just have to see tomorrow what will happen, but I’m quite sure that with a bike like this, I can fight for the top positions.”

Aleix Espargaro – P3

“I am satisfied with the work we did today. We had prepared a very detailed plan for the first session, with various setting tests, but in the end I went back to a base I knew better and was fast both on pace and on the fast lap. It’s only Friday and we can still improve a lot, above all we need to be competitive in qualifying as well”.

Marco Bezzecchi – P5

“Like every Friday, the goal is to gain direct access into Q2. I’m satisfied with this, but I still have a lot to do on race pace and also on the flying lap. We will work hard and wait for the weather. Maybe it will rain tomorrow, we will all be on the same level and will face qualifying as best as we can. At the moment, the crucial point to work is the confidence in braking.”

Fabio Di Giannantonio – P6

“We were quick from the get-go, and I was feeling really good on the bike. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting these lap-times, but everything came out pretty naturally so I’m really positive ahead of tomorrow. Unfortunately, there’s still pain in my shoulder which won’t be an issue on the single-lap performance but could make things more complicated in both the sprint race and the full encounter. We’ll fight the pain, too!”

Maverick Vinales – P8

“It was good to be in Q2 but I felt better on the pace than on the fast lap. Today’s plan was to test with the full aero package, which seems to limit us here. So tomorrow we will go back to standard and work on the details, I would say I need another two tenths to be completely satisfied. If we look at the times today everyone lapped very strong, so I am sure that with a little work I can be even more competitive.”

Pol Espargaro – P9

“I am super happy that we are finally going to Q2, for the first time this season. It is already a great achievement for us, although you always want to do better! Tomorrow we can fight for good positions, so we will do our best.”

Jack Miller – P10

“Managed to scrape through to Q2 by the skin of my teeth but nah happy enough with our Friday.  We really started to tighten everything up towards the end of the day and the bike was feeling good. Unfortunately a tip over towards the end of the session resulted in me residing back to the old faithful due to some minor damage to the new bike, however she did prove that she still goes alright.”

Miguel Oliveira – P11

“I’m not happy with how today went, I finished 11th and our target was to be in the top 10. It was going okay but on the last run, I couldn’t put my best sectors together and I also caught two yellow flags. I could be a bit faster, I don’t know whether it will be enough. So, for tomorrow we will obviously try to improve especially on the single lap speed. When I used the soft tyre during mid-session in race configuration, I was very close to my fastest lap time so there is a big gap for improvement. We have to put everything together for tomorrow.”

Joan Mir – P12

“The crash we had this morning was not a big one but it complicated things a little bit. We were trying a few things with the bike I crashed on. In the afternoon we started with the bike we had in India, but I spent some of the session trying the bikes instead of working hard on a specific setup. I think we lost a bit here and this is why we aren’t in Q2 but still we were close. I think we need to work on improving the braking a little bit in order to keep improving tomorrow. The objective for tomorrow is to improve this and to challenge for Q2, then we will see what’s possible.”

Fabio Quartararo – P13

“The crash was not great. Unfortunately, we had a mishap with the front brake during all the laps. I crashed at quite a high speed, but luckily I only have a sprained ankle and some pain in my neck. I will be back tomorrow. Physically it will be a bit painful, of course, because the day after such a crash the body gets quite sore. But I have to say that I was pretty lucky. About the pace, we are one of the fastest. A low 1‘45s during eight laps with the medium rear, and then we put in the new soft rear and we didn‘t make a step. That‘s pretty frustrating for us, so we have to find a solution in this area.”

Marc Marquez – P14

“Today was a day where there was the possibility to go straight to Q2, I had the speed but there were a few mistakes. On the first tyre I made a mistake on the last corner and with the second tyre there were yellow flags. I didn’t see the yellow flag so didn’t know my lap was cancelled, then I was pushing to improve on my lap time again and I lost the front at Turn 1. Aside from this it wasn’t too bad a day, the feeling was positive and the pace is not looking too bad. Tomorrow we will keep the bike more or less the same and focus more on my riding style and the lines we are using.”

Franco Morbidelli – P15

“Unfortunately, we didn‘t have the potential to get directly into Q2. We are losing a lot on acceleration, also compared to Fabio, and we need to understand well what happened because usually it‘s not like this. We need to check why this occurred and then fix it for tomorrow.”

Cal Crutchlow – P16

“Today went well. We enjoyed being back in the MotoGP class with the YAMALUBE RS4GP bike. We‘re trying to understand different parts of the Yamaha for moving forward with development. These are parts that I have already tested over the year. Some that we thought were positive and others we didn‘t like so much, but it‘s always great to get some mileage on this bike. There is no need for us to come to this GP and ride the standard bike that Fabio and Franky are riding, because we already have the data from this. So, it‘s good for us to evaluate other parts over the weekend. Today went without any drama. It was good to get the test team into working mode for a race weekend, which is different from the testing role that we usually play. We are now going to endeavour to do better tomorrow with regards to looking at the data and how we can improve the setting and the feeling. Today‘s set-up was not my preferred setting for the bike because, as I said, we are evaluating different things, but today went quite well. I was happy enough with my lap time, considering the pace of the guys at the front.”

Raul Fernandez – P17

“Honestly, I am happy, I had a really good pace, the speed is there and I was fast and consistent. But, I had two crashes at the same point and it was quite strange. I know why I crashed and I know what to work on to find a solution together with my team now, that helps me. I felt I could have made it into Q2 today. I had the potential. But we need to be clear; we should not do two mistakes, especially in the same corner and with that, I lost the possibility to go to Q2. We need to work on finding the solution. For tomorrow, we have to improve, especially with the soft tyre.”

Takaaki Nakagami – P18

“I’ve struggled since the FP1 this morning. I didn’t feel good when getting to the braking areas and with the bike’s balance. Regarding the grip, on the rear is better than in the front end, but we still need to improve it because we need to reduce the gap“.

Augusto Fernandez – P19

“We started the day here pretty well with FP1, and we used the soft tyre at the rear for the last laps to train for the time attacks. The first impressions were quite positive. In Practice, we started to work with the medium tyre, and I felt a big difference between the soft and medium. The feelings weren’t there at all, and I was not able to do a good time attack after an average session. We will need to analyse everything tonight and try making the right decision for tomorrow.”

Michele Pirro – P20

“After not coming to this track for ten years, at least it is cooler here than in India! I’m still struggling and a bit too far away from being in a good condition, but I hope tomorrow I can make another improvement step, seeing as today I didn’t use painkillers for the pain in my leg and ankle, and I hope to be a bit better.”

Alex Rins – P21

“I started the day feeling good, but then after a couple of laps, I started to feel pain in the leg. Today was important because now I know which is the starting point and how to continue with my recovery process. The plan is to keep working at home and try again in Indonesia, let’s see how everything goes”.

MotoGP Friday Practice Results

MotoGP Friday FP1 Resuts

MotoGP Championship Points

Moto2 Friday Practice

Somkiat Chantra (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia) cemented himself as an early frontrunner the Motul Grand Prix of Japan with a comprehensive display on Friday. The Thai rider had already established his dominance at Mobility Resort Motegi, having been quickest on the grid in P1, before he doubled down to put in a 1:50.396 in the afternoon and head the combined timesheets.

Aron Canet (Pons Wegow Los40) was close behind with a time of 1:50.433, salvaging his day with a late charge. Meanwhile, Sam Lowes also recovered well after going down in Practice 1, taking third on his Triumph-powered Elf Marc VDS Racing Team machine.

With the prospect of rain looming on the horizon for tomorrow morning’s third and final practice session, Practice 2 took on additional importance and could well prove critical for qualifying…

Current Moto2 Championship leader Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo) was unable to break into the top three overall after ending P1 in second, with that lap still his fastest by the end of play as he finds himself fourth and a tenth behind Lowes. His title rival Tony Arbolino (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team), however, had a tougher day as he finished 18th on the combined timesheets, looking for a lot more on Saturday.

Senna Agius went down at turn six ten minutes into the session, the fastest corner on the circuit, but the Aussie youngster walked away seemingly unharmed. Unfortunately though that meant he didn’t make it back out in the session due to the damage to his motorcycle, as unlike in MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 riders do not have spare bikes. Thus Senna ends the day at the bottom of the time-sheets and with much work to do tomorrow.

Moto2 Friday Practice Results (Combined)

Moto2 Championship Points

Moto3 Friday Practice

Jaume Masia’s (Leopard Racing) incredible form continues after an excellent showing on Friday at Motegi, with the Indian GP winner putting in a 1:57.068 to lead the lightweight class charge into Saturday’s action at the Motul Grand Prix of Japan.

The session took on an added importance at Motegi, with the threat of rain looming large over Saturday’s action, so it was absolutely pivotal that riders recorded a banker lap before then, something which the leading lights in the class managed to do. Ivan Ortola (Angeluss MTA Team) sits in P2, just 0.108s off the lead, while Championship frontrunner Ayumu Sasaki’s (Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP) late efforts see the home hero occupy third.

Crucially for Daniel Holgado, who leads the title race but is now tied on points with Masia, he is among the provisional Q2 places having missed out in India amid a more checkered run of form. The Red Bull KTM Tech3 rider is P4, ahead of Diogo Moreira (MT Helmets – MSI) and fellow Championship challenger Deniz Öncü (Red Bull KTM Ajo). All the main protagonists involved in the title race can rest easy tonight knowing they have all but secured a Q2 spot should rain arrive in the morning, with David Alonso (Gaviota GASGAS Aspar Team) sneaking into P13 late on.

Stefano Nepa (Angeluss MTA Team), Kaito Toba (SIC58 Squadra Corse) and Jose Antonio Rueda (Red Bull KTM Ajo) all sit safely inside the top 10, while three Japanese riders, Ryusei Yamanaka (Gaviota GASGAS Aspar Team), Taiyo Furusato (Honda Team Asia) and Tatsuki Suzuki (Leopard Racing) join Alonso in the danger zone, should the skies remain clear on Saturday morning. Collin Veijer (Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP) is one of the bigger names who will be hoping the sun shines through as the young Dutch rider missed out, with a near highside not helping his case.

Joel Kelso also has work to do on Saturday after ending day one 19th and reporting that he is struggling with a recent foot injury.

Moto3 Friday Practice Results (Combined)

Moto3 Championship Points

Japanese Grand Prix Schedule
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2023 MotoGP Calendar