Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso got his Japanese Grand Prix campaign off to a good start when, despite the pouring rain at the Motegi twin circuit, he topped the timesheets in the overall classification for the day, a fraction of a second faster than his championship rival, Repsol Honda rider Marc Marquez.

โ€œI'm very pleased with my Friday performance here at Motegi because we started off really quick,โ€ he said. โ€œWe were in some doubts about the grip, but I already found a good feeling this morning, while this afternoon I confirmed my speed, and even more importantly, I did my best time immediately at the start of the session.โ€

โ€œWe have got off to a really good start and we've already got a good base setting: now we have to work on the details because the rear tyre wear is quite substantial, even though we used the hardest tyre available.โ€

Third fastest was the Aprilia od Aleix Espargaro followed by the second Ducati of Jorge Lorenzo, who had a very spectacular crash in the opening free practice session of the day, when he was hit violently by the bike of Cal Crutchlow, who had crashed a couple of seconds earlier while braking for Turn 9. Thankfully both men emerged unscathed from the incident, however they did have a rather heated discussion over it.

โ€œToday it was raining a lot and the track was in a very difficult condition, but I'm quite satisfied because I'm up at the front, together with the quickest riders, and starting off as well as this on Friday is always a good sign,โ€ Lorenzo said. โ€œIn the afternoon we improved the bike and I lapped with a good pace. This morning I was quite lucky because when Crutchlow's bike hit me and I crashed, I could have been badly hurt. Luckily in the end, apart from a bang on the hand, it was nothing serious. As for tomorrow, if the weather is still the same, my aim will be to go in the same direction as today.โ€

Dani Petrucci was fifth fastest followed by Iannone, Pedrosa Crutchlow and Rins, who rounded out the top ten.

The two Yamaha's of Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi were eleventh and twelfth respectively.

โ€œWe werenโ€˜t expecting to face such difficulties today. Unfortunately, we struggled with a lack of rear grip, especially on corner entry, even though the grip level of the Motegi track is always good,โ€ said Yamaha's Massimo Meregalli. โ€œOur performance level in wet conditions continues to be a point of improvement. We tried to solve this issue during todayโ€˜s wet sessions, but we didnโ€˜t get the breakthrough we hoped for.โ€

โ€œSince we werenโ€˜t ready to exploit the extra soft tyre, as we wouldn't have been able to enjoy its full advantage, we decided against using it, also because of the small quantity that we were given. The weather conditions are expected to remain the same, so weโ€˜ll continue to keep pushing in the rain, because weโ€˜re eager to make a big step over the weekend for Sundayโ€˜s raceโ€

 

1. A. DOVIZIOSO DUCATI TEAM 1'54.877
2. M. MARQUEZ REPSOL HONDA TEAM 1'54.920
3. A. ESPARGARร’ APRILIA RACING TEAM GRESINI 1'55.061
4. J. LORENZO DUCATI TEAM 1'55.234
5. J. ZARCO MONSTER YAMAHA TECH3 1'55.468
6. D. PETRUCCI OCTO PRAMAC RACING 1'55.541
7. A. IANNONE TEAM SUZUKI ECSTAR 1'55.614
8. D. PEDROSA REPSOL HONDA TEAM 1'55.773
9. C. CRUTCHLOW LCR HONDA 1'56.149
10. A. RINS TEAM SUZUKI ECSTAR 1'56.229
11. M. VIร‘ALES MOVISTAR YAMAHA MOTOGP 1'56.376
12. V. ROSSI MOVISTAR YAMAHA MOTOGP 1'56.435
13. K. NOZANE MONSTER YAMAHA TECH3 1'56.453
14. S. REDDING OCTO PRAMAC RACING 1'56.517
15. K. ABRAHAM PULL&BEAR ASPAR TEAM 1'56.776
16. A. BAUTISTA PULL&BEAR ASPAR TEAM 1'56.827
17. B. SMITH RED BULL KTM FACTORY RACING 1'56.853
18. P. ESPARGARร’ RED BULL KTM FACTORY RACING 1'56.872
19. S. LOWES APRILIA RACING TEAM GRESINI 1'57.250
20. L. BAZ REALE AVINTIA RACING 1'57.259
21. H. BARBERA REALE AVINTIA RACING 1'57.540
22. H. AOYAMA EG 0,0 MARC VDS 1'57.548
23. T. RABAT TEAM EG 0,0 MARC VDS 1'57.645
24. K. NAKASUGA YAMALUBE YAMAHA FACTORY RACING 1'58.341