Marc Marquez regarded to have put his latest MotoGP qualifying curse behind him as he blasted to the primary ever 1m 42s lap of the Motegi circuit.
With only some minutes to go, Marquez’s nearest rival Pedro Acosta was not going quick sufficient to beat the Gresini rider.
However Marquez’s identify abruptly disappeared from the highest of the timing screens, adopted by a message that he had exceeded monitor limits.
The lack of that lap not solely handed pole place to Acosta however dropped Marquez again to ninth.
The Gresini pits had been in uproar, though replays later confirmed that the #93 had certainly clipped the inexperienced simply because the kerbing ended on the exit of Flip 4.
Marquez’s crew chief Frankie Carchedi advised a delay in speaking the penalty denied Marquez the possibility to strive for one more flying lap, though his submit on X was later deleted.
Marquez nevertheless made his ideas clear:
As an alternative, after delivering the 1m 42.868s ‘pole time’, Marquez completed the session with two sluggish laps. That left his subsequent finest qualifying time a 1m 44.136s from his opening run.
Marquez’s cancelled pole lap wasn’t the one drama throughout the tense 15-minute Q2 session, which started with raindrops falling.
Reigning champion Francesco Bagnaia had been twelfth and final after his opening run, struggling badly for rear grip and pitting early for a tyre change.
The Italian’s fortunes then made a large turnaround as he charged to second on the grid whereas title rival Jorge Martin crashed in the beginning of his ultimate run and was left in eleventh place.
Martin holds a 21-point lead over Bagnaia heading into this afternoon’s Dash, when all eyes will once more be on the climate, which is forecast to deteriorate.
Maverick Vinales was a shock third for Aprilia on the stop-and-go monitor, whereas Enea Bastianini, Brad Binder and Franco Morbidelli will kind row two of the grid.
VR46 team-mates Fabio di Giannantonio and Marco Bezzecchi will begin forward of Marquez on row three.
Martin strains up between Alex Marquez and Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo on row 4. Quartararo joined Morbidelli in progressing previous Qualifying 1 the place early chief Jack Miller was left punching the tank of his KTM in frustration.
Johann Zarco rebounded from an enormous ultimate follow fall to be the highest Honda rider in sixteenth.
The Motegi Dash race begins at 3pm native time.
