Jorge Lorenzo takes pole position in MotoGP in Japan, with Márquez 2nd and Hayden 3rd

The MotoGP World Championship was the next to head out onto the Motegi circuit after the problems experienced in FP3 and the delays with Moto3. Eventually the smaller category went out to fight for pole position, and afterwards the top category took its turn, though with some changes.

For this rather peculiar event, it was decided that the top category’s qualifying session would follow the old-school format, meaning a 75-minute session in which all the riders fought for their grid positions. There were many changes in the early stages of the battle for pole position, with Rossi, Lorenzo and Márquez swapping places among themselves.

After those first minutes of the qualifying session, we saw Márquez handle the wet conditions quite well, although there were still many minutes left before the battle for the front-row positions could be considered over. Meanwhile, as the final 30 minutes approached, we saw several riders swapping the leading positions, with Hayden as the main protagonist aboard his Ducati.

But without a doubt, the most important part of this battle was the final 10 minutes of the top category’s session, where we saw an interesting fight between Lorenzo, Márquez and Hayden. The 99 was on a different pace, however, being the only rider to lap in 1:53, specifically 1:53.471, leaving second-placed Márquez more than six tenths behind and third-placed Hayden already more than a second back.

So fourth pole for the Yamaha rider at the Motegi Circuit Honda, a clear statement from the Mallorcan, who will start from the first grid position tomorrow in a Grand Prix that remains as peculiar as ever. The top 10 was completed by Pedrosa 4th, Rossi 5th, Dovi 6th, Bautista 7th, Bradl 8th, Espargaró 9th and Hernández 10th.

In this session we saw several scares for Márquez, Hayden and Pedrosa, and also Bautista’s crash, though luckily it was not a serious incident for the 19. A “strange” round of practice, like the whole Motegi Grand Prix in general. But now it’s time to think about the race and everything that awaits us tomorrow.

On to Motegi!

Photo | MotoGP official and teams