Marc Marquez secured a breathtaking pole position in a thrilling battle for pole in the wet at Motegi, while title contender Fabio Quartararo and Francesco Bagnaia were ninth and 12th.
The heavily delayed session – which got underway around two hours later than planned due to the weather conditions – saw the rather unusual strategy from the field of staying out for the entirety of the pole shootout session rather than pitting for fresh tyres as the riders built up confidence and the track improved.
Johann Zarco – who had managed to escape Q1 alongside Pramac team-mate Jorge Martin – quickly got up to speed as a result of the feeling and data he got from riding in the opening qualifying segment, the Frenchman banging in a 1:55.774s to pace the field.
His time up front was brief though as Marquez fired in a 1:55.698s effort to take over at the head of the timesheets, the Honda pilot then finding an even greater improvement just moments later to post a commanding 1:55.214s.
One by one each pilot got close to but ultimately failed to usurp the six-time premier class champion, with Zarco eventually getting the closest but still 0.208s adrift of the impressive Marquez, who is only in his second race back since returning to action last weekend at Aragon – his last pole coming at this very venue back in 2019.
Brad Binder completed the front row for KTM having originally looked like having what it took to snatch an unlikely pole, the South African well underneath Marquez’s effort half-way round on his final tour before losing time in the final couple splits.
Maverick Vinales was a unexpected fourth for Aprilia as he continues to gel with the RS-GP, while Martin and the sister Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro completed the second row.
Jack Miller was only seventh on the leading factory Ducati after failing to string a front-contending lap together, the Aussie heading the other KTM of Miguel Oliveira – who was robbed of a chance of improving late on after crashing while running strongly.
Quartararo ended up ninth after aborting all of his laps in the second half of the session, the series leader unable to take much advantage of Bagnaia’s serious struggles for speed in wet conditions throughout the day.
Luca Marini completed the top ten for VR46 Ducati ahead of Pol Espargaro and Bagnaia, who was over two second adrift of the leading pace and left with work to do on Sunday.
Marco Bezzecchi will be the highest-placed rookie for the start of the Japanese Grand Prix as he just missed out on graduating to Q2 in 13th on the other VR46 Ducati, the Italian getting the better of countrymen Franco Morbidelli and Enea Bastianini in the end, the latter crashing out on his final flyer en-route to 15th on the grid.
Suzuki suffered a tough start to its final home grand prix as Alex Rins could manage only 18th on the grid as the fastest GSX-RR, with Takuya Tsuda ending up a solid 21st in his first competitive qualifying session in several years ahead of the likes of Raul Fernandez and RNF Racing Yamaha’s Cal Crutchlow.
Tetsuta Nagashima won the battle of the home-grown talents in 19th in his debut MotoGP event while wild-carding for Honda, the LCR-entered RC213-V of the injured Takaaki Nakagami ending up at the foot of the times after he crashed early on in Q1 and failed thereafter to post a competitive tour.
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