The two free practice sessions of the Japanese Grand Prix’s opening day were characterised by steady rain and cool temperatures. Marc Marquez was fastest in the FP1 session and was pushing hard during FP2 after fitting a new rear tyre when he suffered a high-side at turn 4, causing him to miss the last minutes of the session. The time he had already set was fast enough to place him second on the day, 0.043” off provisional pole-setter Andrea Dovizioso.
Andrea Dovizioso
“I’m very pleased with my Friday performance here at Motegi because we started off really quick. We were in some doubts about the grip, but I already found a good feeling this morning, while this afternoon I confirmed my speed, and even more importantly, I did my best time immediately at the start of the session. We have got off to a really good start and we’ve already got a good base setting: now we have to work on the details because the rear tyre wear is quite substantial, even though we used the hardest tyre available.”
Good feeling today! #JapaneseGP FP ?#Dovi04 #DesmoDovi #AD04 #ForzaDucati #MotoGP #Alpinestars #SuomyHelmets #RedBull #OldWildWest pic.twitter.com/pR8jOOyp4w
— Andrea Dovizioso (@AndreaDovizioso) October 13, 2017
Marc Marquez
“This morning everything was perfect and I felt very, very good on the bike. That was the case until the last exit of FP2, despite having to go back from a change to the setup that hadn’t work as well as we hoped. At the end of the session, we fit a new set of tyres and I had a different feeling, less grip. I suffered a high-side, which is a bit uncommon in MotoGP now, but in the end, I’m fine. We need to check for why it happened, and we can certainly work a bit on the electronics to understand how to improve that side. Anyway, our speed was there and our lap times came out good, so our mentality will remain the same. I feel confident for the weekend.”
Aleix Espargaro
“I am very happy. Every time we find good grip conditions, even in the wet, we are able to be fast straight away. I had fun today. In the final part of FP2, I really pushed to the limit. But when you are confident you are able to do that without taking too many risks. A mistake in the last sector kept me from aiming perhaps for first place. But in any case, I am satisfied with the feeling. And I think that we will be able to take home some nice satisfaction from this weekend.”
