The 16th round of the Moto3 world championship welcomes two wildcards to the Twin Ring Motegi circuit in Japan, one of which is Sei Hasegawa who rides a Honda from Team Anija Club Y's.
Hasegawa won the J-GP3 category of the Japan Road Racing Championship and took the championship in the seventh round, at the Autopolis circuit. It was therefore normal that the 19-year-old Japanese wanted to confront the world elite of the category with his NSF250R which, let's admit, is very different from the usual NSF250RW present in the World Cup.
The harsh reality didn't take long to surface, as number 36 only completed 7 laps in FP1 (the lowest number of laps in the category) and 11 laps in FP2, before his machine crashed. stopped due to technical problem.
In the end, his best time of 2'05.159, more than 8 seconds behind leader Andrea Migno, does not allow him to be classified, since he does not respect the 107% rule.
The Japanese pilot explains: “The ECU settings are not working properly and the machine is not in its normal state. That’s why I didn’t surpass myself. In this championship it is necessary to use the common Dellorto Moto3 ECU and it seems that it takes time to match the ECU and the machine. »
The technical problem which immobilized his machine in FP2 was, however, due to another cause…
“Apart from even installing the ECU, another problem arose that caused the shift rod to break. We haven't even done any testing in advance, so we're not ready at all. »
However, the deserving Hasegawa is not at the bottom of the hole and even maintains hope of qualifying…
“Surprisingly, I'm not desperate. On the contrary, I can feel hope. If I look at the time, my gap is 8 seconds, but I had the impression that the speed of going through the corners was not as different from what I had imagined. I think if the machine runs normally I will be able to handle the turns better. If I'm outside the time limit in qualifying, it will be bad, so my first goal is to come within the time limit. After that, I will just do my best during the race. »
The rain expected on Saturday could give it a little boost.
In any case, while all eyes are focused on the world elite represented on Friday by Fabio Quartararo, Maverick Viñales and Marc Márquez, the suspense will also be present on Saturday, on the opposite side of the firmament... But where we obviously wish for the Japanese champion to qualify!
FP2 Ranking Moto3 Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi:
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
Source and photos: As-web.jp
