Francesco Bagnaia 0.005s ahead of Martin in Japanese MotoGP warm-up
Title rivals evenly matched in Sunday warm-up at Motegi.
MotoGP title rivals Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin were separated by just 0.005s during morning warm-up for the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi.
After overcast conditions and raindrops during Friday and Saturday, Sunday dawned dry and sunny.
Sprint winner Bagnaia, who has cut Martin’s advantage to 15 points, exchanged the top spot with the Pramac rider four times during the ten-minute session.
While Bagnaia took his fifth Sprint win of the season after Pedro Acosta fell from the lead, Martin rode to fourth after a qualifying crash left him on the fourth row of the grid.
"I think we are ready for a nice battle today," Martin said.
Martin (like Marc Marquez) will again need to make big progress through the order, but at least have twice the race distance to do it in - as well as, probably, a different rear tyre.
The soft rear was used by all riders in the Sprint, but the medium rear is advised for the grand prix. All riders except wild-card Remy Gardner duly ran the hard front and medium rear tyres in warm-up.
But speaking afterwards, some riders suggested they could still gamble on the soft rear...
Sprint runner-up Enea Bastianini, KTM’s pole qualifier Acosta and Saturday podium finisher Marquez completed a warm-up top five - featuring the top five riders in the world championship - covered by just 0.258s.
Marquez must start ninth on the grid after losing pole position due to a track limits penalty.
Franco Morbidelli, Marco Bezzecchi, Fabio di Giannantonio plus LCR Honda team-mates Johann Zarco and Takaaki Nakagami - who collided in the race – formed the remainder of the warm-up top ten.
Fabio Quartararo was again the leading Yamaha rider, in eleventh, with front row qualifier Maverick Vinales in twelfth.
The Aprilia rider, who was unable to brake hard enough to disengage his holeshot device at turn one of the Sprint, make some bike changes for warm-up that didn’t appear to pay off.
Team-mate Aleix Espargaro was only 17th in warm-up, but still within one-second of Bagnaia.
This afternoon’s 24 lap race, the last of the opening flyaway triple-header, starts at 2pm local time (6am UK).
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
