Motegi Moto3 FP2 Japanese Grand Prix: Migno surprises, Dalla Porta and Canet more in difficulty

At the start of the afternoon in Japan, and morning for us, the Moto3 riders are preparing to enter the track for their second free practice session. During the first, the leader of the Championship, Lorenzo Dalla Porta, dominated despite an inattentive fall in the final minutes. However, his rival Arón Canet, unlucky in Thailand, is indeed there right behind him, as is his teammate Marcos Ramírez.

The paddock also found four of its regular drivers, injured and absent until now: Romano Fenati, Can Öncü, Gabriel Rodrigo and Niccolò Antonelli. The latter did well for his return by taking the eighth time, but it was more complicated for the others.

Who will come out on top this time? The response from 6:15 a.m. French time, and in the meantime here is a summary table of last year's times.

Motegi Moto3™	2018	2019
FP1	1'57.740 Jakub Kornfeil	1'57.240 Lorenzo Dalla Porta
FP2	2'05.403 Marco Bezzecchi	1'56.742 Andrea Migno
FP3	1'56.911 Jorge Martin
Q1	XXX
Q2	1'56.894 Gabriel Rodrigo
warm up	1'57.617 Ayumu Sasaki
Course	Bezzecchi, Dalla Porta, Binder
All time lap record	1'56.443 Hiroki Ono (2016)

The guest pilot Shō Hasegawa is already at the exit of the stands waiting for the session to start a few minutes before. He therefore logically sets off first, followed closely by Celestino Vietti.

Very motivated to catch up in the general classification, Canet did not waste a second and set the first reference time in 1'58.904 before improving by six tenths the following lap.

After ten minutes, the Spaniard still leads ahead of a quartet of Italians made up ofAndrea Migno, Tony Arbolino, Dalla Porta et Antonelli. Five minutes later, Filip Salac is the victim of a violent high side in turn 3 and evacuated on a stretcher. At the same time, the Race Direction announced that he would start from the pit lane on Sunday due to “irresponsible driving”, the Czech having slowed down too much on the track.

Drivers generally stop and start again for their second run halfway through the session. Dallas Port loses the front in turn 5 and returns to the pits. This is the Italian's second mistake of the day. For his part, Canet seems to have wrist pain. The category leaders are therefore both struggling in different ways.

The times start to go down, and it's first of all Tatsuki suzuki, local of the stage, who takes the best time, before John McPhee goes below the 1'57 mark by signing a time of 1'56.877. The Scot thus leads in front of the Japanese, Canet, Migno et Cornfeel. Come next Antonelli, Jaume Masito and Tony Arbolino. Dallas Port et Rodrigo complete the top 10.

With ten minutes to go, most of the drivers returned to the pits, alone Antonelli rolled. The Italian ends up returning in his turn, before everyone comes out for the last five minutes. These will prove important to automatically move into Q2, given that the weather looks uncertain for FP3 tomorrow.

Migno et Ramirez improve the time of McPhee, and the Italian thus has the last word, while Darryn binder comes to slip into eighth place, and the young Stefano Nepa ranks tenth. Dallas Port et Canet finished 11th and 12th, whileArbolino is not yet qualified in Q2.

Ranking to come.

FP2 Ranking Moto3 Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com