Bagnaia sets the benchmark with rain as the main star at the start in Japan

The Italian Francesco ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia (Ducati Desmosedici GP24) marks the invalid reference of a first round of free practice for the Japanese MotoGP Grand Prixwhere the rain became the main protagonist of the Motegi circuit.

Bagnaia was able to roll 1:45,209closely followed by the world leader, the Spanish Jorge Martin (Ducati Desmosedici GP24), before the rain This ruined the work of all drivers and teams, who in some cases had to return to their workshops waiting for an improvement in conditions that finally did not come.

Among the novelties of the ‘queen category’, the Australian presence can be seen in Motegi Remy Gardnerguest rider as a Yamaha tester to replace the injured British rider Cal Crutchlowin addition to the tester of the Italian manufacturer Aprilia, the Italian Lorenzo Savadoriwho replaced the Portuguese Miguel Oliveira.

Oliveira crashed on the first day of Indonesia and suffered a fractured radius in his wrist that forced him to return early to Lisbon to undergo surgery, which will keep him out, at least until the Australian race.

It didn’t take long for the world leader, the Spaniard, to head the table. Jorge Martinwho in just a few minutes lapped at 1:45.318, closely followed by his main rivals of the season, the Italian and double MotoGP world champion, ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia and spanish Marc Marquez (Ducati Desmosedici GP23).

Although the session had just begun from Martín’s first reference, it moved to Bagnaia (1:45.209), behind them there were many changes in the classification order, until the rain appeared and forced all the drivers to enter their workshops to avoid unpleasant ‘shocks’.

The atmospheric conditions spoiled the work of all the teams, who patiently endured in their workshops improving the conditions that would allow them to return to the track.

This happened with less than twelve minutes of the session remaining, during which there were no variations on the time table, as the rain took center stage by reappearing at various points on the Japanese circuit.

Bagnaia he finished first, closely followed by Jorge Martín, his compatriot Fabio di Giannantonio, Marc Márquez, Jack Miller, Marco Bezzecchi, Joan Mir, Johann Zarco, Maverick Viñales and Enea Bastianini taking the top ten positions.

What the drivers could not avoid was returning to the track with the time expired to practice starting from the points set for it on the Japanese layout, at turns four and ten.