Double-reigning MotoGP champion Francesco Bagnaia finished top of the pecking order in the first Motegi practice session.
His lap time of 1.45.209s made him a comfortable leader, but all the riders, including himself, only produced several runs during the wet-ridden first practice session.
Jorge Martin and Fabio Di Giannantonio rounded off the top three, with all three riders separated by 0.380s.
Rainy weather was predicted to fall during the first practice session, but none arrived in the opening 15 minutes. However, the track looked greasy, so riders were trying to gauge whether they could find the limit in the opening runs.
Martin’s second lap time was close to one second quicker than his previous outing, while the usual protagonists were ever-improving around the Japanese streets.
Rain officially announced itself with 32 minutes left on the clock, with light rain tumbling down. Bagnaia proceeded to top the timesheets, highlighting that the rain wasn’t a massive issue initially.
At the end of their final runs, all riders headed to the pit lane as the rain continued to fall.
All riders remained in the garage until the last ten minutes of the session after seeing the rain didn’t make much difference to track conditions.
With 10 minutes to go, all riders proceeded to muster together a lap or two before going back into the pits because the wet weather was picking up again.
Regardless of where all riders finished, the first practice session can be summed up as all riders missing out on an opportunity to formulate a strong setup.
Bagnaia, Martin and Di Giannantonio had a strong session, with Gresini’s Marc Marquez finishing fourth.
Jack Miller finished as the lead KTM rider with a high place of fifth, with Marco Bezzecchi rounding off a very positive session for the VR46 Ducati.
Joan Mir and Johann Zarco delivered seventh and eighth for Honda in front of its home crowd, with Maverick Vinales and Enea Bastianini as little as 0.019s behind the Japanese marque.
Gresini and younger brother Alex Marquez finished in 11th, with Takaaki Nakagami and Pedro Acosta finishing 12 and 13th, respectively.
Alex Rins ended first practice as lead Yamaha rider with 14th spot, with Aleix Espargaro and Brad Binder finishing 15th and 16th for Aprilia and KTM.
Fabio Quartararo struggled as he secured 17th spot, ahead of GP24 Pramac rider Franco Morbidelli.
Luca Marini finished 11 places below his team-mate Mir to take 19th, ahead of Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez and GasGas’ Augusto Fernandez.
Lorenzo Savadori, who has replaced the absent Miguel Oliveira for this weekend, finished second last before Yamaha wildcard Remy Gardner rounded off the last spot in the classification.
