MotoGP Japan Motegi FP2 LIVE: Marc Marquez surfs the water

Just with the three main contenders for the world crown grouped in 17 points with 5 events remaining, fabio quartararo, Francis Bagnaia et Alex Espargaro, the MotoGP World Championship is more open than ever, without even talking about the fourth man, Enea Bastianini, which is looming and could well come and take part in the final confrontation!

17 points in the championship but only 40 thousandths of a second during the extended FP1 which took place on the Twin Ring Motegi circuit in Japan, for the 16th confrontation of the best drivers in the world. Needless to say nothing, during this session dominated by Jack Miller on the dry, in front Francesco Bagnaia, Fabio Quartararo, Aleix Espargaro, Luca Marini, Marc Marquez, Pol Espargaro, Brad Binder, Miguel Oliveira and Maverick Vinales, all currently prequalified for Q2 while Johann zarco, although performing well throughout the session, missed this objective by 1 thousandth of a second due to a fall at the very end of the session!

Takaaki Nakagami will be reviewed by the doctors at the end of the qualification.

While waiting to discover more, as the 25 drivers prepare for this second 45-minute free practice session in the wet, with skies grayer than ever and temperatures of 23° in the air and 23 ° on the ground, let's enjoy these few live moments thanks to the official website MotoGP.com :

Past references:

Motegi MotoGP™	2019	2022
FP1	1'45.572 Maverick Viñales (See here)	1'44.509 Jack Miller (See here)
FP2	1'44.764 Fabio Quartararo (See here)	1'55.232 Marc Marquez (See here)
FP3	1'54.710 Danilo Petrucci (See here)
FP4	1'48.940 Marc Márquez (See here)
Q1	1'46.695 Cal Crutchlow (See here)
Q2	1'45.763 Marc Márquez (See here)
Warm up	1'45.816 Marc Márquez (See here)
Course	M. Marquez, Quartararo, Dovizioso (See here)
All time lap record	1'43.790 Jorge Lorenzo (2015)

When the red lights go out... Alex Marquez rushes first and for once Fabio Quartararo don't leave last.

The rain having increased in intensity at the end of the Moto2 session, we are visibly riding on eggshells...

This does not prevent fabio quartararo et Alex Espargaro to go gardening in the gravel, under the eyes of Marc Márquez who took his time to get going.

Johann zarco achieves the first reference in 2'01.503 then fabio quartararo improves to 2'00.536 while the live timing is broken.

We continue to improve, starting with Alex Marquez and Johann zarco in 1'59.715 and Miguel Oliveira in 1'59.247.

The Devil replied in 1'58.054, a time matched to the nearest thousandth in stride by John Zarco !

Marc Márquez raises the tone in 1'57.277 and seizes leadership briefly possessed by Fabio Di Giannantonio.

Johann zarco will in turn garden in the gravel of turn #3 while Miguel Oliveira registered his name at the top of the table in 1'56.884.

George Martin makes the Pramac colors shine in 1'56.672, Enea Bastianini those of the Gresini team in 1'56.446, Miguel Oliveira those of KTM Factory in 1'56.313, then Marc Márquez strikes again in 1'55.232!

Live timing works again mid-session where the hierarchy is made up of Marc Márquez, Jorge Martin, Enea Bastianini, Miguel Oliveira, Fabio Quartararo, Marco Bezzecchi, Cal Crutchlow, Fabio Di Giannantonio, Franco Morbidelli, Alex Márquez, Jack Miller, Pol Espargaro, Takaaki Nakagami, Rémy Gardner, Raul Fernandez, Tetsuta Nagashima, Brad Binder, Darryn Binder, Johann Zarco, Francesco Bagnaia, Luca Marini, Aleix Espargaro, Alex Rins, Takuya Tsuda and Maverick Vinales : difficult start to the session for the Aprilias!

Johann zarco then restored the situation by positioning his Ducati in fifth position just in front fabio quartararo, before progressing to 3rd place.

Brad Binder makes a minor mistake at turn #3 but has to abandon his bike.

Espargaro Pol falls at turn #8 and also has to flag his bike, which causes the session to be stopped with red flags 12 minutes from the end.

At the restart, everyone came out with a soft rear rain tire, and for the most part a medium at the front.

Aside from the top five, the gaps are significant.

Johann zarco, then 5th, lights the first two sectors in red before losing time in the last two.

We leave it there, for a session which does not change in any way the 12 prequalified for Q2 but gives an idea of ​​the forces present during the qualifications which will probably take place in similar conditions.

See you at 7:25 a.m. for FP3, 8:05 a.m. for the start of qualifying!

MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix FP2 results at Motegi:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com