Johan Zarco (Tech3 Yamaha) takes the pole at the wet qualifying session at the twin ring motegi circuit, Japan.
His second pole of the season. The maiden premier class pole was set in AssenGP in similar weather condition.
Marc Marquez seemed to be on pole when he bettered his own benchmark time 1'53.903, going 1.8s clear.
Marc's tactical decision to switch on to slick tires soon after setting the pole, turned flop, costing him loose the pole to Johan zarco who made stunning run, snatching the pole with under a minute to go, with lap timing 1'53.469, four tenths faster than Marc.
Pramac Ducati rider Danillo Petrucci rubbed salt in Marquez's wounds by going second-fastest shortly afterwards with a time 0.318s adrift of Zarco.
Marc Marquez couldn't improve on slicks,and had to settle for 3rd.
Aprilia's Alex Esparago and Ducati rider Jorge Lorenzo finished 4th & 5th Respectively.
Valentino Rossi started with slick tires only to find himself outside the 2 minute lap time, couldn't switch back to wets early on (quickly) because of crash in FP4.
He was 12th and slowest in Q2, 4.317s off the pace.
Qualifying 1 -
KTM impressed in the wet conditions by getting both of its bikes out of Q1, with Bradley Smith taking his best grid slot of the year in seventh ahead of teammate Pol Espargaro.
Title contender Maverick Vinales missing out on a spot in Q2 with a final effort 0.072s slower than that of Smith, which leaves him down in 14th on the grid behind Loris Baz.
Also missing out on a berth in the pole shootout was LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow, he starts from 15th on the gid tomorrow.
After a major highside crash in FP4,Replacing Jonas Folger, Tech 3 stand-in Kohta Nozane was slowest of all in Q1, and is set to line up 24th for his MotoGP debut – one place behind Yamaha testing mentor Katsuyuki Nakasuga.
- Skkrishh
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