Moto3 Japan Motegi FP2: Dennis Foggia for the honor

Before arriving in Japan, Izan Guevara (Autosolar GASGAS Aspar Team) won for the fifth time in his career at the Aragón GP, after the GP of the Americas last year and the GPs of Spain, Catalonia and Germany this year. This victory on Iberian soil consolidates him at the top of the Moto3 championship, 33 points ahead of his teammate Sergio Garcia, 58 ahead Dennis Foggia (Leopard Racing) and 71 ahead Ayumu Sasaki (Sterilgarda Husqvarna Max) who finished second at the Aragón GP.

Yesterday, during the first free practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix on the Motegi circuit, the Brazilian Diogo Moreira (MT Helmets – MSI) dominated everyone with a significant advantage of two tenths, Dennis Foggia et Ayumu Sasaki showing himself his toughest opponents while Izan Guevara had to settle for 7th fastest time, more than 4 tenths behind.

Exceptionally, only this 2-minute FP40 remains before qualifying, which will begin in the rain with temperatures of 23° in the air and 22° on the ground, even if the weather seems to be partially clearing from time to time: we are relaxing the suspensions!

 

 

Motegi Moto3™	2019	2022
FP1	1'57.240 Lorenzo Dalla Porta	1'57.252 Diogo Moreira
FP2	1'56.742 Andrea Migno	2'09.684 Dennis Foggia
FP3	2'08.385 Ai Ogura
Q1	2'09.680 Alonso Lopez
Q2	2'09.293 Niccolò Antonelli
Warm up	1'57.782 Tony Arbolino
Course	Dalla Porta, Arenas, Vietti
All time lap record	1'56.443 Hiroki Ono (2016)

 

When the red lights go out... Deniz Oncu (Red Bull KTM Tech3) is the quickest to set off, while Lorenzo Fellon (SIC58 Squadra Corse) contains the pain caused by his fall yesterday.

 

 

At the end of the first round, Carlos Tatay (CFMOTO Racing PrüstelGP) sets a first benchmark in 216271, a far cry from the times the day before achieved in the dry.

The rain increases in intensity but Tatsuki Suzuki (Leopard Racing) precedes his teammate Dennis Foggia on the next pass, in 2'13.744 before improving to 2'13.012 then 2'11.723.

Deniz Oncu is constantly at the forefront with the Leopard Racing drivers.

Overmotivated, the stage local continues to improve his times and it is in 2'11.581 that Tatsuki suzuki concludes this first salvo before being surpassed by Deniz Öncü.

 

 

A little before mid-session, however, it was another Japanese driver, Ryusei Yamanaka (MT Helmets – MSI), who came to place himself behind the Turk before being overtaken by a wet specialist, John McPhee (Sterilgarda Husqvarna Max). The Briton achieves 2'10.801 before having to hand over command to Ryusei Yamanaka in 2'10.448.

 

 

Taiyo Furusato (Honda Team Asia) makes a minor mistake.

 

 

Dennis Foggia continues to lower the reference in 2'10.049 while Lorenzo Fellon is particularly comfortable in the wet, placing fourth!

The Japanese pilots then resumed the offensive, first with Ryusei Yamanaka then with Tatsuki Suzuki in 2'09.909.

 

 

We continue to progress until the last minutes, and ultimately, Dennis Foggia has the last word in 2'09.684, which changes nothing in the combined ranking and the pre-qualifiers for Q2.

 

Moto2 Japanese Grand Prix FP3 results at Motegi:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com