The Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira (KTM) finished this Friday in ninth position in the only free practice session of the MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix held this Friday.
The Almada native set his best lap towards the end of the session, running in 1.44.743 minutes, finishing just 0.234 seconds behind fastest Australian Jack Miller (Ducati).
Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) was second fastest, 0.028sec behind his team-mate, with champion Fábio Quartararo (Yamaha) third, 0.049sec behind Miller, despite riding with special chest protection as a result. of the injuries suffered on Sunday, with the fall caused by the Spanish Marc Márquez (Honda) in the Aragón GP.
The fastest 10 in this single 1:15 hour session were separated by just 0.288 seconds and the top 15 were exactly half a second apart in one of the most competitive sessions of the season.
The organization decided that this Friday only a longer free practice session would be held to prevent possible logistical problems in the transport of material from Aragón, where the 15th race of the season was held on Sunday.
With the weather forecasts pointing to rain on Saturday, the probability of the drivers improving their times in tomorrow’s free practice is substantially reduced, so Miguel Oliveira is in a good position to guarantee direct passage to the second qualifying stage. (Q2).
On Saturday there will be two more free practice sessions (FP2 and FP3) and two qualifying sessions (Q1 and Q2), with the usual fourth session falling, which normally takes place before qualifying.
Frenchman Johann Zarco (Ducati) is provisionally out by one thousandth.
The MotoGP Japanese GP is the 16th round of the season, of the 20 planned.
Fábio Quartararo leads the championship with 211 points, 10 more than Francesco Bagnaia, who is second. Miguel Oliveira is 11th, with 95.
Source: Observadora
