Dani Pedrosa is the driver who smiled the most on the Motegi route. Winner on three occasions in MotoGP, he also achieved success in 125 and 250. For this Friday in the rain of the Japanese Grand Prix, he is to his credit the most beautiful progress in a free practice session at the 'other. Only twentieth in the morning, Marquez's teammate jumped up to fifth position in the afternoon. But the 32-year-old driver needs more to get excited…
In fact, what would cheer him up a little is a ray of sunshine drying the Japanese bitumen. But according to the local weather forecast, that's one thing that won't happen this weekend: " this day was difficult » regrets Dani. “ I had problems with the rear tire that I couldn't get up to temperature. » A recurring problem that the Spaniard suffers from as soon as the track is cold. And this is because of its overly slender morphology.
« We made a lot of changes to improve in the afternoon and we were actually able to do better. But I'm still not comfortable on the bike. We had a soft tire still on stick, but we wanted to concentrate on the settings first because this weather should follow us throughout the weekend. But on Saturday, we will undoubtedly bring up the extra-soft ».
« When it rains here, the trail stays cold. It's better when it's dry because in addition, channels formyou”. Dani Pedrosa is fourth in the championship, 56 points behind his teammate and overall leader Marc Márquez.
#JapaneseGP J.1: Ranking
| 1 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | 1'54.877 | ||
| 2 | 93 | Marc Márquez | Honda | 1'54.920 | 0.043 | 0.043 |
| 3 | 41 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia | 1'55.061 | 0.184 | 0.141 |
| 4 | 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | Ducati | 1'55.234 | 0.357 | 0.173 |
| 5 | 5 | johann zarco | Yamaha | 1'55.468 | 0.591 | 0.234 |
| 6 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ducati | 1'55.541 | 0.664 | 0.073 |
| 7 | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Suzuki | 1'55.614 | 0.737 | 0.073 |
| 8 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | Honda | 1'55.773 | 0.896 | 0.159 |
| 9 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | 1'56.149 | 1.272 | 0.376 |
| 10 | 42 | Alex Rins | Suzuki | 1'56.229 | 1.352 | 0.080 |
| 11 | 25 | Maverick VIÑALES | Yamaha | 1'56.376 | 1.499 | 0.147 |
| 12 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Yamaha | 1'56.435 | 1.558 | 0.059 |
| 13 | 31 | Kohta NOZANE | Yamaha | 1'56.453 | 1.576 | 0.018 |
| 14 | 45 | Scott REDDING | Ducati | 1'56.680 | 1.803 | 0.227 |
| 15 | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | Ducati | 1'56.776 | 1.899 | 0.096 |
| 16 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Ducati | 1'56.827 | 1.950 | 0.051 |
| 17 | 38 | Bradley SMITH | KTM | 1'56.853 | 1.976 | 0.026 |
| 18 | 44 | Pol Espargaró | KTM | 1'56.872 | 1.995 | 0.019 |
| 19 | 22 | Sam LOWES | Aprilia | 1'57.250 | 2.373 | 0.378 |
| 20 | 76 | Loris BAZ | Ducati | 1'57.259 | 2.382 | 0.009 |
| 21 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | Ducati | 1'57.540 | 2.663 | 0.281 |
| 22 | 7 | Hiroshi AOYAMA | Honda | 1'57.548 | 2.671 | 0.008 |
| 23 | 53 | Tito RABAT | Honda | 1'57.645 | 2.768 | 0.097 |
| 24 | 21 | Katsuyuki NAKASUGA | Yamaha | 1'58.341 | 3.464 | 0.696 |
