One of Ducati’s top riders, Francesco Bagnaia, recorded the quickest time in the opening Friday practice for the Japan MotoGP. But his efforts were hampered by heavy rain interruptions. The Italian Ducati rider’s best lap timing was 1 minute, 45.209 seconds on the Motegi circuit, just a tad ahead of championship leader Jorge Martin. Although the day was a bit rainy, it ended in the favor of Ducati’s top racer.
Francesco Bagnaia vs. Martin: Battle for Championship
The current champion leader of MotoGP, Jorge Martin, is 21 points ahead of Francesco Bagnaia with five races remaining this year. But the latter impressed during the first part of the session in the rain. Martin, racing for the Pramac team, is getting ready for his first MotoGP title, though he hopes to unseat him after losing to him last season. As Francesco Bagnaia wants to retain his title and Martin aims for the first one, the Japan GP will be an interesting episode in the duel between the two major contenders.
The 45-minute practice session was largely interrupted by rain, with over half the time lost due to poor weather conditions. The early part of the session saw riders take to the track for about 15 minutes in cloudy weather before rain drove them back to their garages. Again, the event had gone for about five minutes, but the rain started again, and the event stopped again. This limited time meant the riders had a poor feel of the conditions, which made the controversy over the weekend ahead even worse.
Giannantonio and Marquez Show Strong Form
Italy’s Fabio Di Giannantonio topped riders, finishing the session with the third fastest lap time, 0.380 seconds behind the winner, Francesco Bagnaia. Better known under his racing number, the Gresini Racing rookie has proven his potential many times this year and will expect to continue this form into the qualifying phase.
In the meantime, six-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez from Spain, due to injuries and inconsistency in previous seasons, was ranked fourth, 0.572 seconds behind. Judging by Marquez’s outstanding performance, one may not completely rule out his chances in Saturday’s sprint race and Sunday’s premier race should inclement weather persist. Enea Bastianini, currently third in the championship standings and trailing MaJapanrtin by 75 points, had a challenging session, finishing with the 10th fastest time. Enea Bastianini was 0.759 seconds behind his teammate Francesco Bagnaia, which means he has a lot of cutoffs to do in the championship.
Final Thoughts: What’s Next?
The second practice session, from which the top 10 riders will automatically qualify for the second round of Saturday’s qualifying, is set to take place later in the day at 3:00 PM local time (0700 GMT). It will decide the positions for Saturday’s sprint race and the Japan MotoGP race on Sunday afternoon. Splitting a maximum of 37 points available over the weekend.
Francesco Bagnaia and Martin will try to finish as strongly as possible as the championship battle heats up. These two race meetings in the coming weekend could determine who will win the MotoGP season 2024 since every single point will be contested as the championship nears its exciting climax.
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