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Unlike on Friday, rain was constant on Saturday at Motegi, affecting the schedule for the day due to the accumulation of water on the track.
Marc Márquez started the day leading the second Free Practice session of the Grand Prix. Later, intense rain forced Race Direction to cancel FP3, with the schedule skipping straight to qualifying sessions. The Repsol Honda Team rider, who thanks to his times on Friday went straight into Q2, had a good session, taking risks when feeling confident and ending the day with a top time of 1:55.214, earning him pole for the Japanese Grand Prix.
3 years after Márquez’s last pole position, on this same track, the eight-time World Champion will once again take off from the head of the grid.
Pol Espargaró made progress on Saturday at Motegi. The Repsol Honda Team rider, who also went directly into Q2, finished the day eleventh.
With a best time of 1:57.354, he will start from the fourth row on the grid.
Rider Statements
“Today is an amazing day, we must celebrate and enjoy it! I knew I could be fast in these conditions, and I had to take the maximum profit from it. It’s good to return to pole, to be on the front row at Honda’s home circuit – they deserve it because they are working very hard. Of course, it is just a pole position and it is in the wet – but coming from where we are, it’s really important to get these smaller achievements. If it’s dry tomorrow, we will come back to our reality but no matter what I am sure I will enjoy the first laps. I want to say thank you to HRC and to the Repsol Honda Team for continuing to support and believe in me, we are coming.”
“Today I was feeling good in the morning before the crash. It can happen in the wet because the conditions are always changing and the line is very small. The distance between a good lap and a crash is very small in the wet, but still I felt like I could be fast in Qualifying. Then everything changed in the afternoon with the conditions and the bike wasn’t feeling like before, I even stopped to change the rear tyre to see if that was the problem but it didn’t change anything. It’s a shame because we had a lot of potential, but let’s see what happens on Sunday. Congratulations to Marc and the whole team, he did something impressive today.”