- 2018-10-21
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SPORTS
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MotoGP Japan: Andrea Dovizioso Takes Pole Position at Twin Ring Motegi
- The Round 16 on MotoGP 2018, Japanese Grand Prix ran Qualifying at Twin Ring Motegi on October 20, 2018.
Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team) withdrew from Japanese MotoGP due to injury.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) took pole position with 1m 44.590s, Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) was second position behind Dovizioso by 0.068s. Third position was Jack Miller (Pramac Ducati) with 1m 44.727s.
Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda), Andrea Iannone (Suzuki Ecstar) and Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) will start on second row tomorrow.
However, Marc Marquez currently leads 77 points Andrea Dovizioso in World Title race, if he wins, he will take his fifth MotoGP™ World Champion.
Local riders Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda) was 12th and Katsuyuki Nakasuga (Yamaha Factory) was 20th, respectively.
Andrea Dovizioso said:
“I’m happy about the pole position and the feeling I had for the pole position. I’m happy also here in the way we work. The base was really good from the first practice but we were able to improve a little bit this afternoon and able to make a really good lap time in the qualifying.
This morning already with the 1m 45.0s I had a really good feeling and I knew I was able to make more or less that lap time. The bike worked well.
But Marc I think has a really good pace. Today he was the fastest. I didn’t use a new tyre in the afternoon but his pace is really strong. So I think at the moment we are very similar with the pace about the race.
And I think there are other riders who have really good pace. So let’s tomorrow the conditions and also the tyre choice. I think almost everybody went quite fast with the medium and the soft so everybody has to make the right decision.
The goal is to win the race. I don’t care about his celebration because we’re thinking about the championship. We want to win. We want to improve the bike and take the maximum of the weekend.”
Johann Zarco said:
“I’m happy to be fast again. From FP1 I got a good pace and could work well with the team, trying to get better but that’s pretty difficult. For the qualifying, with the first tyre, it was quite difficult. But with the second one I was quite fast.
We learned from this today but, in general, all weekend we’ve had good pace and we’ve been pushing really hard. Here, in Motegi, it’s really hard because the track has so many braking zones that it’s very difficult to make a perfect lap but today I feel like I got as close as I could to doing a perfect lap.”
Jack Miller said:
“I’m semi-satisfied. I expected more. I’m surprised to be on the front row but I did the lap time on the first run of tyres and we know that the first lap is not really the optimum lap for the tyres. So the second lap was going to be a good one but I pushed too hard into Turn 5 and locked the front. I was going in way too fast and I just tried to continue and see what would happen, and what happened was I landed on my bum.
I missed the pole by almost nothing because I made a mistake on the last chicane but starting from the first row is the main thing and I’m pretty happy. It’s a good opportunity, I think.”
Motul Grand Prix of Japan Qualifying Results- Andrea Dovizioso / Ducati Team / 1m 44.590s
- Johann Zarco / Monster Yamaha Tech3 / 1m 44.658s
- Jack Miller / Pramac Ducati / 1m 44.727s
- Cal Crutchlow / LCR Honda / 1m 44.820s
- Andrea Iannone / Suzuki Ecstar / 1m 44.832s
- Marc Marquez / Repsol Honda / 1m 44.889s
- Maverick Vinales / Movistar Yamaha / 1m 45.140s
- Alex Rins / Suzuki Ecstar / 1m 45.225s
- Valentino Rossi / Movistar Yamaha / 1m 45.265s
- Alvaro Bautista / Angel Nieto Team / 1m 45.396s
- Dani Pedrosa / Repsol Honda / 1m 45.519s
- Takaaki Nakagami / LCR Honda / 1m 46.168s
- Bradley Smith / Red Bull KTM Factory / 1m 45.722s
- Pol Espargaro / Red Bull KTM Factory / 1m 45.742s
- Danilo Petrucci / Pramac Ducati / 1m 45.759s
- Hafizh Syahrin / Monster Yamaha Tech3 / 1m 45.765s
- Franco Morbidelli / EG 0,0 Marc VDS / 1m 45.969s
- Karel Abraham / Angel Nieto Team / 1m 46.072s
- Aleix Espargaro / Factory Aprilia Gresini / 1m 46.183s
- Katsuyuki Nakasuga / Yamaha Factory / 1m 46.441s
- Scott Redding / Factory Aprilia Gresini / 1m 46.571s
- Xavier Simeon / Reale Avintia / 1m 46.573s
- Thomas Luthi / EG 0,0 Marc VDS / 1m 46.817s
- Sylvain Guintoli / Suzuki Ecstar / 1m 47.106s
- Jordi Torres / Reale Avintia / 1m 47.147s
- source : MotoGP
