Repsol Honda Team starts preparations for Japanese Grand Prix in mixed weather conditions
The Japanese Grand Prix got underway today at Twin Ring Motegi in mixed weather conditions, with a dry morning session followed by a wet and damp afternoon stint.
Marc Marquez led FP1 at length before dropping to fourth in the final minutes. Fourth-fastest was also Marc’s overall result for the day, as he decided to sit out FP2 after checking the track conditions.
Dani Pedrosa was 11th this morning in the dry before setting the fastest lap time in FP2’s mixed conditions.
Marc Marquez
“This morning in the dry, the feeling was good, and with half-and-half conditions in the afternoon, we decided not to lap, even though I’m normally strong in that situation. I felt competitive and strong in FP1 and I was able to ride in a good way. That said, while it’s a bit to early to understand where we are, I saw that Dovi is going to be fast this weekend. Anyway, it doesn’t matter, as we’ll keep the same mentality as always and keep working. We need to adjust many details, such as acceleration and braking stability. We have margin for improvement.”
Dani Pedrosa
“Today we struggled a bit at the beginning, and we had to work on the bike setup. We were ready to try in the afternoon, but conditions changed with the rain that fell before FP2. We weren’t sure if it was meaningful to ride on a half-and-half track, but in the end I think it was positive because we managed to improve the feeling a little bit. In the final minutes we were also able to do a few laps on slick tyres, and that will allow us to be a bit more prepared in case it rains tomorrow.”
Free Practice Combined Classification
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) |