MotoGP preview: Motegi

Three fly-away races in three weeks, including Phillip Island, will probably set the seal on the title fights in each of the three classes before we reach the final round in Valencia on November 9.

Marc Marquez has a first chance to wrap up his second successive MotoGP World Championship in Japan if the cards fall his way. But several men are out to stop him, beginning with Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa, who must finish ahead of his compatriot this weekend.

Although Marquez has endured two difficult weekends in Italy and Spain, he still leads by a handsome 75pt margin.

“Now I know that in Japan it’s my first chance to take the championship,” says Marquez. “I will try not to think about it too much – even if I know it would be great to achieve this on Honda’s home soil. We will go there and work hard from day one and treat it as a normal race weekend and push for the victory on Sunday. Last year was my first visit to Motegi on a MotoGP machine and it was a very difficult weekend, so we hope to have more dry track time this year to find a good setup!”

Marquez brings a strong Motegi record with him: he won there in the 125cc class in 2010, did it again in 2012 on a Moto2 machine and last year was second. But Pedrosa too has Japanese form: Dani has won twice at Motegi in the lower classes and twice (2011-12) in MotoGP.
In 2013 in Japan Marquez was beaten only by Jorge Lorenzo who was on top of his game – as he is once more following his breakthrough Aragon victory. That means the proud Lorenzo is the second man with Marquez in his sights.
“I have great memories from last year, when we surprised everyone with a huge success in our rival’s home,” Lorenzo recalls. “Last year we won at Motegi and also achieved the 200th victory for Yamaha in front of the two Honda bikes. It was unbelievable! Hopefully we can repeat it this time with another perfect weekend.”

And the third man with the Marquez target in the crosshairs? That’s Valentino Rossi, happily restored after his worrying crash in Aragon, has five podiums on his Motegi record including the race win back in 2008.

Just how much did circumstances play into Aleix Espargaro’s brilliant weekend in Spain? The Forward Racing rider claimed his first podium and the first for an Open class rider and has subsequently confirmed his move to Suzuki for 2015 so he will hit Japan with his confidence sky-high.

“We arrive in Japan after the great second place scored at Aragon,” says the Spanish rider. “It was an enormous satisfaction to get this result, a target we were chasing since Qatar GP. I look forward to race in Japan to continue this positive momentum and we are determined to get another good result. Motegi is a ‘stop and go’ track, where we spend a lot of time in the first and second gears. Acceleration here is very important and I’m confident to make another strong performance”.

Pedrosa posted the current Motegi lap record in 2012 when his Honda was timed at 1:45.589, an average lap speed of 163.6km/h.

Moto2: Maverick on the move in more ways than one
Also high on emotion this weekend will be Maverick Viñales, who is moving up to MotoGP next season to partner Espargaro in the new Suzuki project. After all, why hang around in the intermediate class when the top flight beckons? Even though the title is almost certainly out of reach, the 19-year-old has excelled in his rookie year with victories in Texas and last time out in Spain.

Tito Rabat arrives at Motegi with a comfortable-looking 33pt lead over Marc VDS teammate Mika Kallio, who badly needs to halt a run of four winless races if he is to put pressure on the Spaniard on the title run-in. They have contrasting memories of Motegi: Kallio was second last year while Rabat was taken out by Scott Redding on lap one and could not restart.

The lap record-holder in Moto2 at Motegi is Pol Espargaro with a 1:51.100 (155.5 km/h) on his Kalex in 2012.

Moto3: Miller making the most of it
Can Jack Miller and his Red Bull Ajo KTM team resist the momentum of Estrella Galicia’s Honda-mounted duo Alex Marquez and Alex Rins? Marc’s younger brother now leads the Moto3 standings by 11 points from the Australian, with the other Alex just seven behind in third place. All three, however, need to be looking over their shoulders at Romano Fenati, the 18-year-old in Valentino Rossi’s SKY Racing Team VR46 who took a sensational fourth victory of the season in Spain last time out and sits fourth overall.

Aragon ended badly for Miller, who is MotoGP-bound in 2015, but he is buoyed by the rest of the Japanese weekend and still in confident mood.

"We've moved on and we have already focused on these three consecutive races that are so important,” Miller says. “They are also circuits that I like – my favourites. Motegi is probably my least preferred out of them all, but I'm confident. Last year I was fifth in the qualifying session and sixth in the race, so I think we can go well. We will continue with the same strategy as at the last Grand Prix, because at Aragon we had a great weekend and did a great job, probably one of the best of the year. It was just a pity how it ended, but now I am only thinking about this Sunday."

Motegi’s Moto3 lap record-holder is Alex Marquez, who set the new benchmark last year on his KTM with a 1:58.380 for an average lap speed of 146.0km/h.