MotoGP FT1 Motegi 2025: Two crashes for Bezzecchi - Bagnaia with the best time

(Motorsport-Total.com) - Francesco Bagnaia led the first practice session at the Japanese Grand Prix in Motegi. Last year's winner set competitive lap times on his Ducati from the start, narrowly ahead of Jorge Martin (Aprilia) and his Ducati teammate Marc Marquez ( see results ).

With an air temperature of around 30 degrees Celsius, it was a hot morning. Technical updates were made to both Japanese brands. The Yamahas of Fabio Quartararo , Jack Miller , and Miguel Oliveira were fitted with a new exhaust, replacing the small stub on the bottom right.

Honda test rider Takaaki Nakagami's area behind the seat was completely redesigned. There's now a housing for a mass damper. Johann Zarco has now received all the updates the factory team has been working on since the summer break.

The weekend didn't get off to a great start for Aprilia. Raul Fernandez crashed on his first run at Turn 8. Moments later, Marco Bezzecchi tumbled through the gravel at Turn 11. Both riders were uninjured.

Bezzecchi crashed again in his second run. This time, the Italian skidded in Turn 5 and spun off. Both motorcycles were damaged, leaving the Italian without a vehicle for the final 18 minutes—practice ended.

Since Sunday in Barcelona, ​​Bagnaia has been using an older, shorter version of the Öhlins front fork. He switched back to the 2024 chassis at the Misano test. He began the Japanese weekend with this package.

In addition, for safety reasons, Brembo specifies the largest 355mm front brake disc for Motegi. From the start, Bagnaia set competitive lap times on par with his teammate Marc Marquez.

Ten minutes before the end of practice, Bagnaia set a fastest time of 1:44.857 minutes. Martin came within 0.093 seconds of that mark. The reigning world champion drove this lap on a new, soft rear tire. He was working on a setup for qualifying.

There were two more yellow flags at the end of the race. First, Enea Bastianini crashed from his Tech3 KTM at Turn 10. Moments later, Franco Morbidelli (VR46-Ducati) crashed at Turn 5, and Miller, who was right behind him, also crashed, although he didn't hit his fallen colleague.

This brought the practice session to a close. Marc Marquez was third, a tenth of a second behind. Fabio di Giannantonio (VR46-Ducati) followed in fourth. The best Honda rider was Marini in fifth. Morbidelli had the sixth-best time before his crash.

Pedro Acosta, the best KTM rider, was three and a half tenths of a second behind and finished seventh. Miller, rookie Somkiat Chantra (LCR-Honda), and Oliveira completed the top 10. Chantra made it into the top 10 in a practice session for the first time.

Apart from Acosta, the remaining KTM riders were only in 19th ( Brad Binder ), 21st ( Maverick Vinales ), and 23rd (Bastianini). Yamaha's spearhead, Quartararo, was 0.6 seconds behind, finishing 16th.

The Gresini-Ducati team was nowhere to be seen this morning. Alex Marquez was also six-tenths of a second behind, placing him in 15th place. Rookie Fermin Aldeguer was just under a second behind, finishing 20th.

Afternoon practice begins at 8:00 CEST, when direct Q2 qualifying will be decided.