Jorge Martin again! The Prima Pramac Racing spaniard is firmly in the fight for the title and won today’s Japanese Grand Prix full of emotion and moments of uncertainty: from the rain that started falling just before the start of the race, to the change of bikes, and the restart declared after a red flag… which didn’t happen.
Everything is in place for the start of the GP and with more ingredients to make this round one of great excitement: just before the start of the race it started to rain in Motegi. Francesco Bagnaia leads the championship by eight points ahead of second place Jorge Martin. 76,125 were at the circuit to watch the race.
And right at the first corner the «problems» started, with Johann Zarco going off into the gravel and Maverick Viñales also going wide and then crashing… in slow motion.
The rain intensified and the white flag was shown, allowing the riders to change bikes – prepared with rain tyres – only Michele Pirro, Fabio Quartararo, Stefan Bradl, Franco Morbidelli and Cal Crutchlow remained on track, with the rest going straight to their garages to change.
Soon afterwards more riders went to the garage, but Pirro, Bradl and Morbidelli stayed on the track. In fact, the Italian was told by the team to go to the garage and change bikes, and he was leading by more than 10s.
Before that, a big mistake by Martin caused him to lose a lot of time:
With 20 laps to go and now practically all the riders on rain tyres. Franco Morbidelli was the exception, as he was still on slicks.
Meanwhile, with 19 laps to go, Brad Binder crashed, not seriously. The south african ended his race and was effectively the first rider out, as Viñales, who had crashed at the start, was still on track.
That was the top ten with 18 laps still to go at Motegi:
On the following lap, Morbidelli «finally» gave in to the track conditions and went to the pits to change bikes. The italian, who will ride for Pramac Racing in 2024, was 19th.
Miguel Oliveira, one of the most impactful riders in MotoGP when the conditions are rainy, gradually gained positions and was fourth, 0.554s behind Marco Bezzecchi in third. Martin led by 1.026s over Bagnaia.
On the tenth lap OIiveira was beaten by Marc Marquez and then Aleix Espargaro. The portuguese rider seemed to be riding a much slower pace than normal and lost two positions: one to a specialised rider on the japanese circuit and the other to the «Captain» of Aprilia Racing.
Joan Mir did a long lap and lost a few positions, going from seventh to, ultimately, 13th.
On the following lap Miguel Oliveira headed for the team garage: after apparently having mechanical problems that caused him to drop his pace dramatically, the CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP rider now retired from the race as he headed for the garage.
Zarco crashed hard at turn 12:
It wasn’t long before the race was red flagged due to the worsening track conditions, which were adding to the riders’ problems.
So was the top five at the restart of the race:
Zarco, meanwhile, was out of the restart for… not entering the pit lane from the right access when he was taking his motorbike back to the garage after the crash.
Viñales and Miguel Oliveira could have been at the restart, but starting from the pit lane. It seems that the portuguese rider’s retirement was due to problems not with his motorbike, but with the visor on his helmet.
And before the official restart… it was over. On the preparation lap, the red flag was shown again and the race was now officially over due to worsening track conditions, as the rain intensified once again.
So Martín was the race winner, Bagnaia second and M. Márquez once again gave Honda a podium.
Here’s how the Japanese GP ended: