Repsol Honda RC213V rider Marc Marquez qualified second for tomorrow’s Japanese Grand Prix, further extending Honda’s record of front-row starts at every race this year, after two days of practice and qualifying when the riders only went out on track once, and all free practice was cancelled.

Team-mate Dani Pedrosa qualified fourth, to lead the second row; Alvaro Bautista (FUN&GO Honda Gresini RC213V Honda) heads the third row in seventh position, with Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda RC213V) alongside. Bryan Staring (FUN&GO Honda Gresini FTR Honda) placed 24th on his CRT-category machine.

Times were set in a single qualifying session extended to one hour and 15 minutes, after foul weather conditions on the periphery of Typhoon Francisco caused all Friday sessions to be cancelled, and also the scheduled final free practices on Saturday.

The track was streaming as heavy rain continued to fall, but the major cause of cancellation was indirect: the essential medevac helicopter was officially grounded under strict Japanese aviation regulations, because low cloud cover at the hilltop circuit cut visibility below safe limits. With the official hospital more than one hour away by road, Race Direction kept competitors grounded as well, because of the risk of being unable to provide quick treatment in the case of serious injury.

The delays and repeated rescheduling tested the patience of riders and fans alike. Finally the green light came after mid-day on Saturday, with all three classes having just one session – 75 minutes for MotoGP, 55 minutes for Moto2 and Moto3,

Marquez moved up to second on a drying track in the closing stages, to start alongside pole qualifier and title rival Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha).

This is a crucial race for the championship fight between the two Spaniards. Defender Lorenzo clawed back a significant 25 points one week ago in Australia, when Marquez scored zero points after he was disqualified for a technical infringement. With serious tyre-life issues, the race featured a compulsory pit stop and bike change for the first time in grand prix history. A misunderstanding of the instructions meant the championship leader missed the prescribed pit-stop window. The penalty was severe: a black flag and disqualification.

It was the first serious set-back to the 20-year-old class rookie’s stunning first season in the premier class. Marquez won the Moto2 championship last year having previously claimed the 125 crown; and adapted instantly to the much more powerful and specialised V4 Honda RC213V. The first of six wins came at only the second round, and before the Australian debacle Marquez has finished on the rostrum at every race but one.

He arrived in Australia with a points advantage of 43 and the possibility of becoming the youngest ever World Champion. But he left for Japan – third of three flyaway races on successive weekends – with his lead cut to 18 points, with a maximum of 50 still available.

Marquez will be youngest-ever champion if he extends that advantage to more than 25 points tomorrow … he needs to win, and for Lorenzo to finish no higher than third. Failing that, the fight will continue to the final round at Valencia in Spain in two weeks.

Pedrosa will also have his sights set on Lorenzo, in his own interests. The 28-year-old former 125 and double 250 champion is still in touch for second overall, only 16 points adrift. He has won at Motegi for the past two years, and a third win at the Honda-owned circuit would narrow the gap still further.

Pedrosa added a third win this season in Malaysia three weeks ago, following it up with second in Australia as his return to full strength maintains momentum. He missed the Motegi front row by three thousandths of a second

The older Repsol Honda RC213V rider led on points earlier in the season, but fractured his collarbone at round eight in Germany, missing that race, and hampered over the next rounds, though he did claim two more second places while still recovering. A further set-back came at round 14 at Aragon, when a minor collision with his team-mate freakishly disabled his crucial electronics, and he crashed out while challenging for the lead.

Pedrosa has been on the top-three podium at every race he has finished bar three.

It is an important race also for seventh-placed Bautista. The Spanish former 125cc World Champion has a special role: race-developing Showa suspension and Nissin brakes, made by Japanese companies with close ties to Honda. As the only rider using this equipment he has no reference points: his and the team’s good progress in this task has seen a series of strong rides in the latter part of the season. He has not finished lower than seventh in the last ten races, with a best of fourth, and fifth places at the last two rounds.

Motegi marks a comeback ride for final RC213V rider Bradl, who has missed the past two races after sustaining ankle fractures in practice in Malaysia. Immediate surgery gave hopes he might return the next weekend in Australia, but after a brave attempt in the first free practice, he was ruled out. Another week of intensive physiotherapy meant he was passed fit to ride in Japan. His two missed races allowed Bautista to move ahead, to sixth overall, but only 12 points ahead.

Bryan Staring is approaching the end of his first grand prix season, riding the Honda CBR1000RR-powered CRT bike. He has scored points as he adapts to the machine and learns new circuits, but today his time was outside the 107 percent-of-pole cut-off point for qualification. Due to the extraordinary circumstances, however, the team hoped he might be allowed to start.



Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda RC213V): 2nd – 1m 54.129

“Today was a different kind of qualifying session, like those from the past with a lot of track time, as we had an hour and 15 minutes. It is the first time that I’ve ridden here in MotoGP at Motegi and in addition it was wet and I didn’t have time to set the bike up, but nevertheless I think we had a good session. We achieved our aim of a spot on the front row. Tomorrow’s race is forecast to be dry, and it will be interesting as nobody has had time to find a good setup.”

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda): 4th – 1m 54.542

“It was a long wait, but in the end we were finally able to put some laps in and I tried to get the best out of this wet session. We led the time-sheet for a long time, but in the final ten minutes we had some problems with the tyres I used. I wasn’t able to ride as well as I wanted and we eventually took fourth. Tomorrow we will try to get a good start and we will see if the warm-up is dry beforehand, in order to try out everything possible with the bike and tyres.”

Alvaro Bautista (Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini): 7th – 1m 55.535

“I had a really good feeling for the bike during the session this afternoon so it was a shame about crashing because for sure it has cost me a better starting position. We were on a good lap when I ran a little bit off line in one corner and onto a particularly damp patch. Anyway, these things happen and I am still confident that in dry conditions tomorrow we can have a good race.”

Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda RC213V): 8th – 1m 55.610

“It was a good qualifying for us and I am happy about the mobility of my ankle. The rehabilitation programme we had in the last week helped me a lot. We must be happy with our result today considering my physical condition. Obviously I had a painkiller injection before the session and I have tried to improve my pace lap by lap. In the last part of the qualifying the track started to dry up and I could not improve my lap time on a rain tyre. Until now it has been a weird weekend but now I am quite happy because I could test my ankle on tricky conditions. It looks like the weather is going to be sunny tomorrow so it will be important to adjust the bike in the warm up session.”

Bryan Staring (GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda): 22nd – 2m 02.712

“Unfortunately I didn’t have time in the one session we had to get comfortable on the bike around this track. It’s a completely new circuit for me but that’s not the only reason why we struggled. The rear was sliding around a lot in the corners, we couldn’t get any traction and now we just have to hope that they let us start the race tomorrow because we have lapped outside the 107 percent limit.”

Qualifying position

1 Jorge Lorenzo 1m53.471s ESP YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
2 Marc Marquez 0.658 ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
3 Nicky Hayden 1.068 USA DUCATI Ducati Team
4 Dani Pedrosa 1.071 ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
5 Valentino Rossi 1.261 ITA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
6 Andrea Dovizioso 1.565 ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
7 Alvaro Bautista 1.664 ESP HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
8 Stefan Bradl 2.139 GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
9 Aleix Espargaro 2.248 ESP ART Power Electronics Aspar
10 Yonny Hernandez 2.527 COL ART Paul Bird Motorsport
11 Cal Crutchlow 2.587 GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
12 Katsuyuki Nakasuga 2.654 JPN YAMAHA Yamaha YSP Racing Team
13 Bradley Smith 3.643 GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
14 Colin Edwards 3.826 USA FTR NGM Forward Racing
15 Andrea Iannone 3.876 ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing
16 Danilo Petrucci 4.069 ITA IODA Came IodaRacing Project
17 Randy De Puniet 4.244 FRA ART Power Electronics Aspar
18 Hiroshi Aoyama 4.523 JPN FTR Avintia Blusens
19 Michael Laverty 5.069 WAL ART Paul Bird Motorsport
20 Luca Scassa 5.331 ITA ART Cardion AB Motoracing
21 Claudio Corti 6.146 ITA FTR NGM Forward Racing
22 Hector Barbera 6.175 ESP FTR Avintia Blusens
23 Damian Cudlin 7.511 AUS ART Paul Bird Motorsport
24 Bryan Staring 9.241 AUS HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
25 Lukas Pesek 9.461 CZE IODA Came IodaRacing Project

Championship standings

1 Marc Marquez 298 pts ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
2 Jorge Lorenzo 280 pts ESP YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
3 Dani Pedrosa 264 pts ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
4 Valentino Rossi 214 pts ITA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
5 Cal Crutchlow 179 pts GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
6 Alvaro Bautista 147 pts ESP HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
7 Stefan Bradl 135 pts GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
8 Andrea Dovizioso 127 pts ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
9 Nicky Hayden 111 pts USA DUCATI Ducati Team
10 Bradley Smith 99 pts GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
11 Aleix Espargaro 88 pts ESP ART Power Electronics Aspar
12 Andrea Iannone 55 pts ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing
13 Michele Pirro 50 pts ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing
14 Colin Edwards 36 pts USA FTR NGM Forward Racing
15 Randy De Puniet 33 pts FRA ART Power Electronics Aspar
16 Hector Barbera 31 pts ESP FTR Avintia Blusens
17 Danilo Petrucci 24 pts ITA IODA Came IodaRacing Project
18 Yonny Hernandez 20 pts COL ART Paul Bird Motorsport
19 Hiroshi Aoyama 13 pts JPN FTR Avintia Blusens
20 Claudio Corti 11 pts ITA FTR NGM Forward Racing
21 Ben Spies 9 pts USA DUCATI Pramac Racing
22 Karel Abraham 5 pts CZE ART Cardion AB Motoracing
23 Alex de Angelis 5 pts ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing
24 Michael Laverty 3 pts WAL ART Paul Bird Motorsport
25 Bryan Staring 2 pts AUS HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
26 Javier del Amor 1 pts ESP FTR Avintia Blusens
27 Martin Bauer 0 pts AUT S&B SUTER Remus Racing Team
28 Lukas Pesek 0 pts CZE IODA Came IodaRacing Project
29 Luca Scassa 0 pts ITA ART Cardion AB Motoracing
30 Ivan Silva 0 pts ESP FTR Avintia Blusens
31 Damian Cudlin 0 pts AUS ART Paul Bird Motorsport
32 Blake Young 0 pts USA APRILIA Attack Performance

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