Despite the Jonas Folger medical package at the Japanese Grand Prix, there will be five Yamaha M1s lined up on the starting grid next Sunday, with the arrival of Kohta Nozane in the Tech3 stand alongside Johann Zarco.
Enough to satisfy both Yamaha Factory which had already made an effort by registering Katsuyuki Nakasuga as wild card, as well as the affected half of the French team, for whom making a trip to Motegi while remaining passive there would have had a bitter taste to say the least...
Hervé Poncharal, the boss of the Monster Yamaha Tech3 team spoke on the subject.
Hervé Poncharal: « After the sad and disappointing news that Jonas Folger will not be able to compete in the Japanese Grand Prix, I am happy to say that the #94 side of the garage will be competing in the race this weekend. We are proud to announce that Kohta Nozane will be competing for us here. He is a very important rider for Yamaha Motor Company and has participated in many championships, including the World Endurance Championship. When we knew Jonas was going to have to withdraw from this GP, we spoke with Yamaha and it made perfect sense to choose Nozane. He knows Motegi very well and I think he won a race here this year in the Japanese Superbike championship. He tested the M1 in January, which will clearly be a big help for him, to show what he can do. We don't expect too much, because it's a one-off and he doesn't have MotoGP experience. However, one thing that will be interesting is his mentor, Nakasuga, who is a wild card on another YZR-M1, and I'm sure they will be happy to compete against each other. We are happy to have found the opportunity for two drivers to race for Tech3 this weekend. We don't want to put pressure on Nozane, but we would like to thank him, as well as YMC, Mr. Tsuji and Mr. Tsuya, who helped us immensely to get this opportunity. We hope to be able to give Nozane a good experience, which will help him progress as a rider and hopefully as a MotoGP rider in the near future. Let's see what happens, but the weather forecast is not very good and there will definitely be some rain during the weekend. Nevertheless, I would like to thank him and welcome him to our team. »
