Pedro Acosta “happy and calm”| Bagnaia poised to punish Martin’s mistake?
Pedro Acosta starts from a M♚otoGP pole for the first time, Francesco Bagnaia nine places clear of title rival Jorge Martin.
You need a little luck in racing sometimes and a track limits penalty for 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Marc Marquez handed 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Pedro Acosta his first MotoGP pole position at Motegi on Saturday.
The GASGAS Tech3 rookie had been only 0.150s behind Marquez’s cancell♛ed lap record and, most impressively, 0.643s clear of the next best KTM of future team-mate Brad Binder.
Fourth in Friܫday practice, Acosta advanced to second 🍃place on Saturday morning and then P1 in qualifying.
“Super nice!♐ It's a long time that I didn’t see the '1' in front of my bike [in parc ferme],” smiled Acosta.
“We have to be happy because we see that in the last 4-5 races, we can put everything together andꦓ are getting more competitive.
“I’m happy because we are getting closer to the targets w𒁏e want to achieve. For this, we need to be happy and calm for this afternoon.”
Crucially, Acosta also looks to have the𒈔 mid 1m 44s💜 race pace to challenge the likes of Francesco Bagnaia, quickest in final practice and the strongest on used tyres this morning.
While Acos🤪ta was a contender throughout the damp qualifying, Bagnaia initially struggled for grip and abandoned his opening run early.
But Bagnaia was transformed after the tyre change, securing what became second on the grid despite yellow flags on hi🌊s next༒ lap.
Those yellows were in response to a mistake by title leader Jorge Martin, who crꦚash꧟ed out at Turn 6 and will start from just eleventh on the grid.
Martin’s mistake has presented Bagnaia with a big opportunity to regain ground in the title chase. The factory Duca👍ti star will begin this afternoon’s Sprint 21 points behind the Pramac Ducati rider.
“Super important,” Bagnaia said of the qualifying result. “At the start, I thought it was getting🔥 wet because something was wrong on my bike.
“But I ♊decided to stop and when I reꦫstarted everything was okay again. So I was able to do a very good lap time.
“I missed a bit on tꦅhe last lap but there were yellow flags inꦯ any case.
“Happy overall. We have a good chance to♚day and tomorrow with this🐼 kind of grid [Martin 11th] and we have to take it in a good way.”
Maveriꦕck Vinales made it thre𒐪e brands on the front row with a surprise third for Aprilia.
“I’m really happy and satisfied about the performance,” Vinales said. “We know this is not the best track for Aprilia but we keep making steps forward and when I feel good, when I feel t♔hat the bike is doing what I like, I can do amazing lap times.
“Today we did it, so it was nice. At the same time, it was pretty curious that it was raining but t🍷he track was quite dry and we could push to the limit. I’m really excited. I love Japan so I always want to be on the podium here. I will do my best and𓄧 we’ll see after the race.”
Enea Bastianini (Ducati), Brad Binder (KTM) and Franco Morbidelli (Pramac) will form the sec𒈔ond row of t🍌he grid.
Marquez🐬 will start from ninth after his cancelled lap.
Peter has been in the 🍎paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
