World championship leader Marc Marquez struggled to regain his top shape Friday during practice ahead of Sunday’s Grand Prix of Japan, as his team scrambled to find the correct set-up.
The Spaniard’s first match-point for this season’s title began on a rocky footing, as he went through a minor crash early in practice when he attempted to turn a corner with issues also with shaking of his machine.
The 21-year-old Honda rider got up quickly after the fall and hopped on a scooter to confer with his team before going out again to Motegi’s Twin Ring circuit, known for its stop-and-go design with lots of hard braking and acceleration points.
“I was not able to work well with the set-up,” Marquez said after practice.
Marquez can retain his MotoGP title with a victory at Motegi, home to Honda.
Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso submitted shining performance Friday, benefiting from an extra soft rear tyre to set the best time of the day with a 1min 45.140sec, leaving a 0.440sec gap ahead of former world champion Jorge Lorenzo, winner at Motegi last year.
They were followed by Stefan Bradl on LCR Honda, Dani Pedrosa on Honda, and Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi.
Marquez clocked sixth, 0.799sec slower than the leading Italian.
Dovizioso also marked faster practise time than Marquez in Grand Prix of Aragon two weeks ago.
Marquez complained about shaking of his machine during the morning practice session, when he could not brake in time at turn five.
“When I arrived at the braking point, there was no brake, zero. Then I tried to brake in two, three, four times. But it was becoming too late,” he said.
“In the end, I was able to brake a little bit. But I saw that the wall was coming, and I fell down,” he said with a chuckle.
“I hope tomorrow we will improve a little bit,” he said.
With a margin of 75 points over second-place teammate Pedrosa, Marquez could use the Motegi race to lock the championship with a win or even worse depending on the final placement of his rivals.
Pedrosa, who Marquez has to beat in order to claim the season crown in Motegi, showed off superb braking moves and said was happy with the practise.
