2024 Japanese MotoGP: Brad Binder leads Marc Marquez in tight second practice
KTM star leads Friday practice at Motegi as Martin best of title favourites
KTM MotoGP rider Brad Binder was fastest in second practice for the Japanese Grand Prix ahead of Marc Marquez, while championship leader Jorge Martin was third.
The damp conditions that affected FP1 had cleared up for the hour-long Practice session this afternoon at Motegi.
In a tight session that saw a number of crashes and a top 14 covered by under a second, KTM’s Binder came out on top with a 1m43.436s in the closing stages of Practice.
He led Gresini Ducati’s Marc Marquez by 0.033s, the eight-time world champion salvaging a strong lap at the end of the session having spent much of it visibly frustrated with his GP23.
Championship leader Martin was third for Pramac, while his chief title rival Francesco Bagnaia was seventh at the chequered flag.
Martin kicked off Practice setting the reference lap time at 1m44.320s on his Pramac-run GP24, before Bagnaia took over with a 1m44.072s eight minutes into the session.
This stood as the benchmark for quite a while, with Binder finally breaking the factory Ducati rider’s stranglehold on the top spot of the timesheets with 12 minutes to go.
Binder raised the benchmark with a 1m43.879s, which was quickly beaten by KTM stablemate Pedro Acosta on the GASGAS-branded Tech3 machine with a 1m43.754s.
Bagnaia returned to the top of the order next with a 1m43.754s, matching Acosta’s lap but getting top spot by virtue of his follow-up lap being quicker than the Spaniard’s.
This was short-lived, though, as Martin edged ahead with a 1m43.568s before Binder posted the 1m43.436s that would see him end the session fastest of all.
A late improvement for Marc Marquez threatened Binder’s time, though the Gresini rider came up just short with a 1m43.469s.
Martin was 0.132s off Binder in third, with Acosta fourth and Enea Bastianini fifth having suffered a fast crash on his factory Ducati at Turn 13 about midway into the session.
Maverick Vinales was the only Aprilia inside the top 10 in sixth, with Bagnaia seventh from Alex Marquez (Gresini) and the VR46 duo of Fabio Di Giannantonio and Marco Bezzecchi.
A late jump for Bezzecchi coupled with a fall at Turn 3 in the dying stages meant Jack Miller was knocked out of the Q2 places on the sister factory team KTM in 11th.
He will face Q1 with the likes of LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami, Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli and Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.
Johann Zarco (LCR) crashed during the session, as did Tech3’s Augusto Fernandez and Trackhouse Racing’s Raul Fernandez. All three were ok.
