2024 Japanese MotoGP: Brad Binder leads Marc Marquez in tight second practice
KTM star leads Friday practicꦛe at🐎 Motegi as Martin best of title favourites
KTM MotoGP rider Brad Binder was fastest in second practice for the Japanese Grand Prix ahead of Marc Marquez, while championship leader Jorg🥃e Martin was third.
The damp conditions that af𒁏fected FP1 had cleared up for the hour-long Practice session this afternoon at Moteg🥃i.
In a tight session that saw a number of crashes and a top 14 covered📖 by under a second, KTM’s Binder came out on top with a 1m43.436s in the closing stages of Practice.
He led Gresini Ducati’s Marc Marquez by 0.033s, the eight-time world champion salvaging a strong lap at the end of the session having spent much of it visibly frustrated with his G🍒P23.
Championship leader Mar♕tin was third for Pramac, while his chief title rival Francesco Bagnaia was se♒venth at the chequered flag.
Martin kicked off Practice setting the referꦓence lap time at 1m44.320s on his 𒆙Pramac-run GP24, before Bagnaia took over with a 1m44.072s eight minutes into the session.
This stood as the benchmark for quite a while, with Binder finally breaking the facto꧂ry Ducati rider’s stranglehold on the top spot of the timesheets with 12 minuteℱs to go.
Binder raised the benchmark with a 1m43.879s, which was quickly beaten by KTM s𝔉tablemate Pedro Acosta o♕n the GASGAS-branded Tech3 machine with a 1m43.754s.
Bagnaia returned to the top of the order next with a 1m43.754s, matching Acosta’s lap but getting top spot by virtue of his follow-up lap beingಞ quicker than the Spaniard’s.
This was short-lived, though, as Martin edged ahead with a 1m43.568s before Binder posted the 1m43.436s that would see him end the session fastest ofꦗ all.
A late improvement for Marc Marquez threatened Binder’s time, though the Gresini rider𓆉 came up just short with a 1ꦕm43.469s.
Martin was 0.132s o💧ff Binder in third, with Acosta fourth and Enea Bastianini fifth having suffered a fast crash on his factory D🍒ucati at Turn 13 about midway into the session.
Maverick Vinales was ♕the only Aprilia inside the top 10 in sixth, with Bagnaia seventh from Alex Marquez (Gresini) and the VR46 duo of Fabio Di Giannantonio and Marco Bezzecchi.
A late jump for Bezzecchi coupled with a fall at Turn 3 in the dying stages meant Jack Miller was knocked out of the Q2 places on the sister factory team KTM in 11th🧸.
He will face Q1 with the likes of LCR’s Takaaki Nakaga🌱mi, Pramac’s Franco Morbidellꦬi and Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.
Johann Zarco (LCR) crashed durin🃏g the session, as did Tech3’s Augusto Fernandez and Trackhouse Racing’s Raul Fernandez. All three were ok.
