Thrilling Showdown Looms: Bagnaia and Martin Neck-and-Neck Ahead of Japanese MotoGP Clash

Bagnaia Edges Out Martin by a Mere 0.005 Seconds in Japanese MotoGP Warm-Up

Contenders for the Title Neck and Neck in Motegi's Sunday Warm-Up Session.

In the morning warm-up session for the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi, MotoGP championship contenders Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin were incredibly close, with a mere 0.005 seconds dividing them.

Following a period of cloudy skies and rainfall on Friday and Saturday, Sunday emerged with clear, rainless weather.

Sprint champion Bagnaia, who has reduced Martin's lead to 15 points, swapped the leading position with the Pramac competitor four times throughout the ten-minute session.

Bagnaia secured his fifth Sprint victory of the season when Pedro Acosta lost his leading position due to a fall, while Martin managed to finish in fourth place despite a crash during qualifying that started him from the third row.

"Martin expressed confidence that they were prepared for an exciting confrontation today."

Martin, similar to Marc Marquez, must once again advance significantly in the rankings, but fortunately, he has double the race length to achieve this, likely with a different rear tire as well.

Every competitor opted for the soft rear tire during the Sprint, however, for the Grand Prix, the medium rear tire is recommended. In the warm-up session, every rider, with the exception of wild-card entrant Remy Gardner, made the choice to use the hard front and medium rear tires.

However, following the event, a few cyclists hinted that they might still take a chance with the softer rear option…

Enea Bastianini, who finished second in the sprint, along with KTM's top qualifier Acosta and Marquez, who secured a podium position on Saturday, made up the leading group in the warm-up, which included the world championship's top five riders, all within a mere 0.258 seconds of each other.

Marquez will begin from the ninth position on the starting grid, having been stripped of his pole position due to a penalty for exceeding track limits

Franco Morbidelli, Marco Bezzecchi, Fabio Di Giannantonio, along with LCR Honda colleagues Johann Zarco and Takaaki Nakagami – who were involved in a collision during the race – rounded out the top ten in the warm-up session.

Fabio Quartararo maintained his position as the top Yamaha contender, finishing eleventh, while Maverick Vinales, who started from the front row, ended up in twelfth place.

The rider from Aprilia, who struggled to apply sufficient braking force to deactivate his holeshot device during the Sprint's first turn, implemented some modifications to his motorcycle for the warm-up session which seemingly did not yield the desired results.

Aleix Espargaro, a fellow team member, ranked 17th during the warm-up session, yet he was just under a second behind Bagnaia.

Today's final race of the initial overseas triple-header, consisting of 24 laps, kicks off at 2pm local time, which translates to 6am in the UK.

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