Francesco Bagnaia continued his strong form from recent tests by posting the fastest time during the opening MotoGP practice session in Japan at Motegi. Using advanced 2024-spec components on his GP25, Bagnaia led the timing sheets shortly after the session began, showing early promise ahead of qualifying.
Bagnaia Leads Practice Despite Challenge from Competitors
After briefly ceding the top spot to his team-mate and reigning champion Marc Marquez, Bagnaia regained the lead from the 11-minute mark onwards. Aprilia’s Jorge Martin came closest to matching Bagnaia’s pace, improving significantly after fitting new medium front and soft rear tires, despite front-end grip being a known weak point on his RS-GP. Marquez settled into third place on hard front and medium rear tires, sharing similar setups with other riders in the top seven.
Fabio di Giannantonio and Franco Morbidelli from the VR46 squad, Luca Marini on Honda, and KTM’s Pedro Acosta also featured in the top positions. Jack Miller of Pramac Yamaha joined Martin in using a fresh set of soft rear tires during the last minutes, aiming to improve their times. Among rookies, Somkiat Chantra impressed by finishing ninth for LCR Honda, with Miller’s teammate Miguel Oliveira completing the top ten.
Monster Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, managing with just a single tire set throughout the session, was only 0.660 seconds behind Bagnaia despite dropping to 16th place.
Setbacks for Bezzecchi and Others During Practice
Marco Bezzecchi, who won the Misano Sprint and finished runner-up in the Grand Prix, started the practice well but suffered two crashes while running on the soft front tire. These incidents forced him to spend most of the session in the Aprilia garage recovering from his falls. Raul Fernandez of Trackhouse was also an early victim of a crash. Towards the end, the session was disrupted by yellow flags caused first by Tech3’s Enea Bastianini, and then by a simultaneous fall involving Franco Morbidelli and Jack Miller at Turn 5. All riders involved escaped injury.
Looking Ahead to Afternoon Practice and Qualifying
Riders are expected to improve lap times in the afternoon session by switching to the medium front tire, which was the favored race choice last year. This one-hour session will be crucial as it determines the top ten riders who will qualify directly for the more critical Qualifying 2 round. The afternoon practice is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. local time, setting the stage for an intense qualifying battle.
