Breath-taking front-row qualifying performance for Marquez at Motegi, Pedrosa improves to sixth
After displaying a strong pace in every session at the Japanese Grand Prix, Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez set the third fastest time of the day at the end of a thrilling qualifying session on a drying Motegi track.
After switching from rain tyres to slicks for his second time attack, the 24-year-old Spaniard was unable to improve on the time that had until then put him on provisional pole.
Nonetheless, his 1’53.903” time, set despite a big slide in the final corner, was quick enough to earn him his 11th front-row start of this season, less than half a second from pole-setter Johann Zarco.
Recovering from a difficult start to the weekend, Dani Pedrosa consistently improved his pace and speed and tomorrow will line up in sixth place, on the second row.
Marc Marquez
“The result is good but clearly the slicks today weren’t the right choice, as it was a bit too early for them. Anyway, you always have to look at the positive side of things, which in this case, firstly is that we’re still on the front row, as we had already done a very good lap time on rain tyres; and secondly is that we managed to understand a few things in case of a flag-to-flag race. I’m also happy I saved a crash when I set my fastest time and avoided my team missing dinner tonight! I think we’ve had a good weekend so far, being able to do well in every session in the wet, keeping a fast pace in quite challenging conditions, and that’s very positive. Tomorrow it looks like it will rain again, but we’ll see; we could also have mixed conditions, and in that case we will have to be ready for every situation”.
Dani Pedrosa
“Today qualifying was difficult, as the conditions were changing and the track was drying. I didn’t feel at ease with the tyres in my first exit, as I suffered too much spinning. I stopped and changed the tyres and I felt better, so I was able to improve my lap time. Mixed conditions are always challenging for making the right choices regarding the bike setting, but today we worked a lot on the electronics and understood more about the track itself when it’s completely wet and when it’s half-and-half. Now we have to wait for tomorrow, see what the weather will be like, and try to be ready for the race.”
Qualifying Results
Pos. | Rider | Num | Nation | Team | Constructor | Time/Gap |
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Location Information
Located amongst the vast natural beauty of the northern Kanto district, the twin ring circuit at Motegi in Japan consists of a 1.5 mile oval and a 2.9 mile road course constructed to international standards. Built by Honda as the ultimate test facility in August 1997, the road circuit became… read more.
Length | 4.801 kilometres / 2.983 miles |
Width | 15 metres |
Left corners | 6 |
Right corners | 8 |
Longest straight | 0.762 kilometres / 0.473 miles |
Constructed | 1997 |
Twin Ring Motegi, Haga District, Tochigi, Japan - View in Google Maps
Records
Pole Position | 1m 43.018s (167.7km/h) Pedro Acosta (KTM, 2024) |
Race Lap | 1m 44.461s (165.4km/h) Jorge Martin (Ducati, 2024) |
Race Time | 42m 09.790s (163.9km/h) Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati, 2024) |
2024 Sprint Winner | Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) |
2024 Race Winner | Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) |