Gabriel Rodrigo ended his Japanese Qualifying round with a pole position, closely followed by John McPhee and Marco Bezzecchi. Jorge Martín is 4th.
Gabriele Rodrigo will be the one kicking off from the best position on the starting grid at the GP of Japan. The Argentinian rider of the RBA BOE Skull Rider team managed to win the pole position at Motegi, and together with him on the front row, there will be John McPhee, only 75 thousandths after, and Marco Bezzecchi. Just behind him the current World Championship leader Jorge Martín (he is racing again with the bionic glove we saw in Thailand, trying to fix his hand’s issues).
It’s Qualifying time for the young riders of the MotoGP junior category, and they know they need to give the best in order to get the best positions on the starting grid. It’s nice to see that Antonelli is back, as he suffered a violent fall during FP3 but luckily with no serious injuries. But is Martín the one that really showed off during FP3 and who managed to close on top the last round of FP ahead of Ramírez and Bezzecchi. In the first half of the round, the Italian rider of the PrüstelGP team temporarily took the lead while Kornfeil (the best time on Friday) suffered a small high side and, soon after, the wild card Fukushima fell: luckily both riders left the track unharmed.
The situation started changing in the last few minutes of this round, but for Suzuki and Ramírez Qualifying ended earlier than everyone else. The final assault (with many riders trying to get the ‘right wake’) gave us Gabriel Rodrigo’s best time, with a nice 1:56.894 that gives him the 1st position on the starting grid: this is also the best absolute time of the whole weekend. Just next to him onthe front row in Motegi, there will be John McPhee and Marco Bezzecchi. Jorge Martín will be opening the second row, followed by Darryn Binder and Enea Bastianini. Dennis Foggia closed the session with an excellent 7th place, ahead of Kazuki Masaki, Albert Arenas and Lorenzo Dalla Porta. Ayumu Sasaki suffered a high side just before the end of the round, this was losing some positions and ending up 13th.
The ranking
