MotoGP, qualifying: Alex Marquez ahead of Pedro Acosta – plenty of crashes

In the MotoGP class, qualifying takes place on Friday afternoon. The aim of the 60-minute session is to secure direct entry into Q2 on Saturday, which only the ten fastest riders manage to achieve. The rest must compete in Q1, where the two fastest riders advance to Q2.

In FP1 at Motegi, champion Marc Marquez (Ducati Lenovo) was the fastest with a time of 1:44.073. The Aprilia riders Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi finished in second and third place respectively. Local hero Takaaki Nakagami (Honda) suffered a violent highside at the start of the session, breaking his left collarbone. The Japanese rider’s home Grand Prix came to a very early end. Returning rider Maverick Viñales finished the first free practice session in 18th place.

At the start of qualifying, the air temperature at Motegi was 23 degrees Celsius. The riders took to the track at 3.00 pm local time on the dot.

After just three minutes, Alex Rins crashed in Turn 3. The Yamaha rider then sprinted off the track to get back to his pit as quickly as possible.

The top five after five minutes: Bezzecchi, Acosta, Bagnaia, Moreira and Razgatlioglu. Shortly afterwards, Luca Marini (Honda) crashed in Turn 1. The Italian had set the fastest time on the previous lap.

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Shortly afterwards, Pedro Acosta set a new fastest lap of 1:44.397. Bezzecchi moved into second place.

After eight minutes, Ai Ogura had to pull his smoking Aprilia over to the side of the track before Turn 1. The red flag was then waved and the session was halted. Ogura’s RS-GP had spilled oil on the start-finish straight – level with the pit exit. The Trackhouse rider walked back to his pit. Loris Capirossi then cleared the track together with the marshals.

The order before the interruption was: Acosta, Bezzecchi, Marini, Martin, Zarco, Bagnaia, Bastianini, Toprak, Binder and Quartararo. Marc Marquez was twelfth at that point.

After around 12 minutes, the session resumed. Ogura had grabbed his spare bike.

Acosta improved his fastest lap to 1:43.866. However, this didn’t last long – Bezzecchi took the lead with a time of 1:43.742. Johann Zarco set the third-fastest time. Shortly afterwards, Marc Marquez surged forward to third place.

After 30 minutes, Marc Marquez set a new fastest time of 1:43.623 mins. The top 10 at the halfway point of the session: MM93, Bezzecchi, Acosta, Martin, Alex Marquez, Aldeguer, Fernandez, Ogura, Quartararo and Zarco. The field was still around 0.7 seconds off the lap record set by Bagnaia in 2025.

Shortly afterwards, Quartararo moved up to fifth place, whilst Martin was now second. Then Acosta set a new fastest lap of 1:43.589 minutes.

With 17 minutes to go, Fermin Aldeguer took the lead with a time of 1:43.586. Maverick Viñales was in 19th place at that point. Just three minutes later, ‘Bez’ set a new fastest lap of 1:43.276. MM93 went one better and clocked a time of 1:43.138. Acosta set the third-fastest time and Moreira catapulted himself up to fourth place. Alex Márquez was faster and moved into fourth place.

In the meantime, Bezzecchi had set a new fastest lap of 1:43.029. Acosta was now in second place.

The order with nine minutes to go: Bezzecchi, Acosta, Marc Márquez, Alex Márquez, Martin, Moreira, Zarco, Quartararo, Bastianini and Fernández.

Then came the final push for the fastest times. Zarco crashed in Turn 13 – his rear wheel slipped out from under him. He initially sat in the gravel, a little dazed, but was then able to walk off the track under his own steam.

Acosta set a lap record of 1:42.887 minutes! Shortly afterwards, AM73 was even faster – clocking a time of 1:42.811 minutes! Moreira crashed in Turn 5, but he was uninjured.

Di Giannantonio surged forward to fifth place, with Quartararo now in sixth. At the very last moment, Bastianini set the sixth-fastest time.

No one else came close to AM73’s time.