Jorge Martin once again! The Spanish rider from Prima Pramac Racing is in the title fight and won today’s Japanese GP full of excitement and moments of uncertainty: from the rain that started to fall moments before the race began, to the bike change, and the declared restart after the red flag… that never happened.
All set for the start of the GP and with more ingredients to make this round one of great excitement: shortly before the start of the race, it started raining in Motegi. Francesco Bagnaia leads the championship with eight points more than the second-placed Jorge Martín. 76,125 are at the circuit to watch the race.
And right at the first corner, the “troubles” began 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 which allowed the pilots to change to bikes – prepared with rain tires – only Michele Pirro, Fabio Quartararo, Stefan Bradl, Franco Morbidelli and Cal Crutchlow remained on track, with the rest heading straight to their respective garages for the change.
Shortly after, more pilots headed to the garage but Pirro, Bradl and Morbidelli stayed on track. The Italian even received communication from the team to go to the garage and change bikes, as he had led by more than 10s.
Before that, a big mistake by Martín caused the rider to lose a lot of time:
With 20 laps to go and now with almost all the pilots properly equipped with rain tires. Franco Morbidelli was the exception, as he continued with slicks.
Meanwhile, with 19 laps to go, Brad Binder crashed, without serious consequences. The South African ended his race and was indeed the first one out, as Viñales, who had crashed at the beginning, was still on track.
So this was the top ten with 18 laps to go still in Motegi:
On the following lap, “finally” Morbidelli succumbed to the track conditions and headed to the pit to change bikes. The Italian, who will race with Pramac Racing colors in 2024, was in 19th place.
Miguel Oliveira, one of the most impactful riders in MotoGP when conditions are rainy, gradually gained positions and was fourth, 0.554s behind Marco Bezzecchi in third. Martín led with 1.026s over Bagnaia.
On the tenth lap, Oliveira was overtaken by Marc Márquez and then by Aleix Espargaró. The Portuguese seemed to have a much slower pace than usual and lost two positions: one to a particularly one on the Japanese circuit and the other to the “Captain” of Aprilia Racing.
Joan Mir completed a Long Lap penalty, lost some positions, and ultimately dropped from seventh to 13th.
On the next lap, Miguel Oliveira headed to the team garage: after apparently having mechanical issues that drastically slowed him down, now the CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP rider retired from the race by entering the garage.
Zarco crashed dramatically in turn 12:
It didn’t take long for the race to be red-flagged due to the worsening track conditions, which were adding more problems for the riders.
This was the top five at the moment the race was interrupted:
Zarco was meanwhile out of the race restart for… not entering the pit lane through the correct entrance when taking the bike to the garage after the fall.
Viñales and Miguel Oliveira could be in the race restart, but starting from the pit lane. Apparently what led to the Portuguese rider’s retirement is related not to problems with the bike but with the visor of the Portuguese rider’s helmet.
And before the official restart… it ended. During the warm-up lap, the red flag was shown again and the race was now officially ended due to the worsening track conditions, as the rain intensified again.
Therefore, Martín was the race winner, Bagnaia second, and M. Márquez once again gave Honda a podium.
Here is how the Japanese GP ended:
