For once, the weather forecasts were not wrong and, in the absence of the very Breton rain this morning, it is a wet track which welcomes the MotoGP riders on the Japanese track.
This morning, under a real flood, Marc Marquez left his opponents no chance, whether they are for the title or not.
This afternoon, with 16° in the air and 17° on the ground, it is hardly warmer than in the morning, the surface seems a little less soggy.
Here are the references available at the start of this FP2:
|
#JapaneseGP MotoGP™ |
2016 |
2017 |
|
FP1 |
1'45.786 Andrea Dovizioso (see here) |
1'55.418 Marc Marquez (see here) |
|
FP2 |
1'45.151 Jorge Lorenzo (see here) |
1'54.877 Andrea Dovizioso |
|
FP3 |
1'44.987 Marc Marquez (see here) |
|
|
FP4 |
1'45.304 Marc Marquez (see here) |
|
|
Qualification 1 |
1'45.614 Alvaro Bautista (see here) |
|
|
Qualification 2 |
1'43.954 Valentino Rossi (see here) |
|
|
Warm Up |
1'45.451 Marc Marquez (see here) |
|
|
Course |
Marquez, Dovizioso, Vinales (see here) |
|
|
All time lap record |
1'43.790 Jorge Lorenzo 2015 |
Big bikes back out on track in Motegi 🇯🇵 💦 #JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/GZ3I7Qg4RR
- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) October 13, 2017
From the first laps, we notice that the track seems a little faster than this morning, Andrea Dovizioso achieving 1'55.837 from his third flying lap, to compare with his 1'56.664 of this morning.
Valentino Rossi this time tries the carbon discs and the integrated fin fairing and also progresses, this time by almost two seconds.
Bradley Smith fall without gravity at turn #11 whileAndrea Iannone improves his time by the same difference as that achieved by Valentino Rossi
But it's Andrea Dovizioso who, after a quarter of an hour, recorded the best provisional time of the day, in 1'54.877. Dani Pedrosa also restores the situation and, shortly before halfway, we have the impression that the hierarchy takes on a more “normal” appearance than in FP1: Andrea Dovizioso, Aleix Espargaro, Andrea Iannone, Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa, Cal, Marc Marquez, Danilo Petrucci, Valentino Rossi et Espargaro Pol make up the top 10, while Johann zarco appears in 12th position, Maverick Vinales in the 15th and Loris Baz in 19st.
At the level of wild card drivers, it's always Kohta Nozane who, in 16th place, is the fastest, while Tatsuyuki Nakasuga et Hiroshi Aoyama appear in 22 and 24 positions respectively.
Marc Márquez is then the only driver in the top eight not to have improved.
As usual, Johann zarco did not stop mid-session and extended his run to provisionally position himself second, six tenths behind Andrea Dovizioso.
10 minutes from the checkered flag, Marc Márquez points its nose by positioning itself third then second, 4 hundredths behind the Ducati rider. He suffered his 23rd crash of the season two laps later at turn #4 after Jorge Lorenzo took third place.
this time @marcmarquez93 pushes the limits a little too far! 😖 #RiderOK #JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/rFhhZ1mEbY
- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) October 13, 2017
The end of the session will only see the forcing of Aleix Espargaro who manages to dislodge Jorge Lorenzo from third place in the provisional ranking.
At the end of this first day, the prequalified for direct passage to Q2 are Andrea Dovizioso, Marc Marquez, Aleix Espargaro, Jorge Lorenzo, Johann Zarco, Danilo Petrucci, Andrea Iannone, Dani Pedrosa, Cal Crutchlow et alex rins.
Johann zarco is the only Yamaha rider present in this group…
Please note, however, that if all the sessions take place in the rain, the drivers will have to demonstrate strategy and may be forced to skip FP4 despite an allocation increased to 6 front rain tires (4 specification A + 2 specification B) and 7 rear rain tires (5 specification A + 2 specification B)…
Upcoming ranking:
#JapanesGP MotoGP FP2 Ranking compiled by our friends at crash.net :
