Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez will start tomorrow’s Japanese GP from 3rd on the grid after a closely contested qualifying session. Teammate Dani Pedrosa will begin from the second row in 6th position.
The final practice session before qualifying – FP4 – was red flagged after just ten minutes due to a serious crash involving Alex De Angelis. After a delay of twenty five minutes, the session resumed as the riders worked hard to find a good setup in time for qualifying with both Repsol Honda riders pre-qualifying for Q2.
On the first run, Marc was positioned 3rd and Dani 4th as they entered the pits for a fresh rear tyre. Marc improved his time by four tenths and his lap of 1’44.216 (lap 7/7) was enough to earn him a front row start. Dani also improved on his second run and his time of 1’44.582 (lap 8/8) placed him 6th – missing the front row by just 0.366 seconds.
The GP of Japan will commence tomorrow at 14h00 local time.
Marc Marquez - 3rd 1'44.216
"Today has been another difficult day, but it is important for tomorrow that my hand has not got worse and has remained quite stable. I'm happy, because on a single lap, with new tyres, we were able to achieve a good time and improve on the target we had set ourselves, which was to start from the second row. However, we must be realistic and if it does not rain tomorrow, both Jorge and Valentino are one step ahead and we will be fighting for third place. We are working on the setup of the bike, but it seems that we’re finding it hard to find a good compromise. We are getting closer and I am very happy with all the work the team are doing."
Dani Pedrosa - 6th 1'44.582
"Today has not been a great day, because we had some problems with the setup of the bike and I wasn’t riding very comfortably. In the qualifying session I managed to finish in a reasonable position and tomorrow we will try to do our best, be motivated and try to improve. It may be that the weather changes, so we will have to be very focused to try to make the most of our chances."
1 LORENZO Jorge 99 SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 1'43.790
2 ROSSI Valentino 46 ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 1'43.871
3 MARQUEZ Marc 93 SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1'44.216
4 DOVIZIOSO Andrea 4 ITA Ducati Team Ducati 1'44.322
5 IANNONE Andrea 29 ITA Ducati Team Ducati 1'44.436
6 PEDROSA Dani 26 SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1'44.582
7 ESPARGARO Aleix 41 SPA Team Suzuki Ecstar Suzuki 1'44.809
8 CRUTCHLOW Cal 35 GBR LCR Honda Honda 1'44.932
9 SMITH Bradley 38 GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1'45.067
10 VINALES Maverick 25 SPA Team Suzuki Ecstar Suzuki 1'45.081
11 ESPARGARO Pol 44 SPA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1'45.219
12 REDDING Scott 45 GBR Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 1'45.333
13 BRADL Stefan 6 GER Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 1'45.432
14 HERNANDEZ Yonny 68 COL Pramac Racing Ducati 1'45.438
15 NAKASUGA Katsuyuki 21 JPN Yamaha Factory Racing Team Yamaha 1'45.496
16 BAUTISTA Alvaro 19 SPA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 1'45.608
17 PETRUCCI Danilo 9 ITA Pramac Racing Ducati 1'45.691
18 BARBERA Hector 8 SPA Avintia Racing Ducati 1'45.724
19 TAKAHASHI Takumi 72 JPN Team HRC with NISSIN Honda 1'45.743
20 LAVERTY Eugene 50 IRE Aspar MotoGP Team Honda 1'45.751
21 HAYDEN Nicky 69 USA Aspar MotoGP Team Honda 1'45.843
22 MILLER Jack 43 AUS LCR Honda Honda 1'46.039
23 BAZ Loris 76 FRA Athina Forward Racing Forward Yamaha 1'46.048
24 DI MEGLIO Mike 63 FRA Avintia Racing Ducati 1'46.179
25 ELIAS Toni 24 SPA AB Motoracing Honda 1'46.256
26 AKIYOSHI Kosuke 64 JPN AB Motoracing Honda 1'47.760
27 DE ANGELIS Alex 15 RSM Athina Forward Racing Forward Yamaha 1'48.192 (FP3)