Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia was able to tackle the difficult conditions to take the final MotoGP practice session at Motegi.
While there was no rain in the session, overnight rain had complicated the track, making it difficult to read the fastest times. However, Bagnaia looked to have the momentum into qualifying.
The session started in tricky conditions as the anticipated bad weather threatened the circuit, but all the riders took to the track to get comfortable before qualifying.
After Brad Binder’s success for KTM in Friday practice, it was teammate Jack Miller who set the early pace in his favourite type of conditions – narrowly ahead of Repsol Honda’s Joan Mir and Bagnaia.
It would soon return to business as usual at the top of the timesheets though, with Bagnaia setting a 1:44.887 to go first ahead of fellow Ducatis Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez.
A late flourish from Acosta and Vinales saw the jump ahead of the Ducatis into the top three, but nobody could challenge Bagnaia’s time at the top of the standings.
Fabio Di Giannantionio had a strong showing at the end of practice, ending up in fifth, ahead of Binder in sixth and teammate Marco Bezzecchi in sixth.
Martin had an off at the end of practice and finished seventh ahead of Marquez in eighth and Enea Bastianini in ninth, with the final GP24 of Franco Morbidelli rounding out the top 10.
Miller finished the session in 11th, ahead of a positive display for Augusto Fernandez in 12th and a resurgent Mir in 13th.
Aleix Espargaro continued with his struggles and could only manage 14th for Aprilia, with Alex Marquez 15th and Johann Zarco 16th after a crash in the last minute of the session.
Fabio Quartararo led the struggling Yamahas down in 17th, ahead of Luca Marini in 18th, home hero Takaaki Nakagami in 19th and the second Yamaha of Alex Rins in 20th.
The Trackhouse duo of Raul Fernandez and stand-in rider Lorenzo Savadori also struggled in the difficult conditions, finishing in 21st and 22nd ahead of Yamaha wildcard Remy Gardner who completed the standings.
