The World Championship leader begins Japanese GP weekend with good feeling in dry FP1, and does not ride in FP2 –a session headed by Dani Pedrosa.
Marc Márquez was among the riders with the fastest pace in the first Free Practice session and finished fourth, 140 thousandths of a second off the quickest man, Andrea Dovizioso.
After rain between FP1 and FP2 and with the track progressively drying out, the reigning World Champion did not go out in the second session so as to avoid unnecessary risks.
Dani Pedrosa was eleventh overall and finished top of the timesheets in FP2, riding with slick tyres on his final laps.
Marc Marquez
“This morning in the dry, the feeling was good, and with half-and-half conditions in the afternoon, we decided not to lap, even though I’m normally strong in that situation. I felt competitive and strong in FP1 and I was able to ride in a good way. That said, while it’s a bit to early to understand where we are, I saw that Dovi is going to be fast this weekend. Anyway, it doesn’t matter, as we’ll keep the same mentality as always and keep working. We need to adjust many details, such as acceleration and braking stability. We have margin for improvement.”
Dani Pedrosa
“Today we struggled a bit at the beginning, and we had to work on the bike setup. We were ready to try in the afternoon, but conditions changed with the rain that fell before FP2. We weren’t sure if it was meaningful to ride on a half-and-half track, but in the end I think it was positive because we managed to improve the feeling a little bit. In the final minutes we were also able to do a few laps on slick tyres, and that will allow us to be a bit more prepared in case it rains tomorrow.”
