Since the start of this weekend in Japan, the weather has been playing spoilsport, showering the Motegi circuit with sporadic showers. This was again the case throughout the day, although the sprint started in the dry, at 3 p.m. local time.
When the start was given, Pedro Acosta was the man of the day. For the first time since his arrival in the MotoGP category, the Spaniard took his place on the best position on the starting grid, a situation inherited from a pole position snatched from Marc Márquez and which he will relive on Sunday for the main event of this Grand Prix.
For the 12 laps of this sprint, the Tech3 driver was however grilled by Bagnaia, who started second, then by Enea Bastianini, who would however widen a few seconds later and allow the Spaniard to move up one notch.
Only 11th after a fall in qualifying, Jorge Martín was already fifth, behind Brad Binder, when the first lap was completed. Jack Miller had also progressed well, gaining five places at the start, while Maverick Viñales, who started from the first row, instantly fell to 11th place in a failed first lap.
Left disappointed in qualifying after a time worthy of the canceled pole, Marc Márquez quickly put the turbo on and, from the third lap, he took the advantage over Martín to enter the top 5 after both jostled at the moment to escape from the grid.
It was in this same third round that Acosta seemed to get his hands on the gold medal. The Spaniard has indeed found the opening to dispossess Bagnaia of the controls. Clean, neat and without burrs, this season’s rookie seemed to be heading towards victory…
Bastianini was in their wheel, while a gap of one second already appeared behind the leading trio, which the Márquez-Martín duo would try to reduce. Brad Binder, for his part, had left the stage, his KTM having betrayed him while he was in fourth place, pushing him to return to the pits in slow motion.
Acosta on the ground, Bagnaia on eggs
Up front, Acosta seemed to have everything under control… but with four laps to go, he made a mistake in turn 7 and opened up a boulevard in Bagnaia!
Victory now seemed certain to the reigning champion… unless the weather decides otherwise? Because a few drops of rain came to further disturb this short ordeal. Very cautious in the last laps, and also deprived of some power by a cautious technical choice made for this sprint, Bagnaia saw Bastianini and Márquez, who had been crossing swords for a few minutes, return.
Ultimately, the leading trio was not going to move forward and it was in single file that Bagnaia, Bastianini and Márquez passed under the checkered flag. Left behind, Martín validated the points for fourth place, therefore losing further ground in the championship after a costly fall in qualifying.
Zarco penalized
Behind the leading men, Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Di Giannantonio fought for fifth place, a duel which turned to the advantage of the Pramac driver. The last points were validated by Álex Márquez, Jack Miller and Maverick Viñales, who will remain with a feeling of unfinished business.
Fabio Quartararo arrived in 12th place, which he already occupied on the grid. Johann Zarco, qualified 16th, was caught in contact with his teammate Takaaki Nakagami, causing the latter to fall shortly before halfway. Immediately placed under investigation by the race management, the incident earned the Frenchman a long-lap penalty, however without impact on his accounting results since he was running away from the nine places earning points.
To make Honda’s record worse at home, Joan Mir fell at the start of the race after trying to avoid another rider. At Aprilia, two bikes were lost at once when Raúl Fernández and Aleix Espargaró crashed together on the tenth lap.
Japanese GP MotoGP – Sprint race
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