It was time for this to stop. At the end of a GP interrupted mid-race by heavy rain on the Motegi track, the Spaniard Jorge Martin (Ducati-Pramac) won the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday. He beat the Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), second but still leader overall. Six-time Spanish Moto GP world champion Marc Marquez (Honda), third, completes the podium.
Overall, Martin is getting closer thanks to this success. He is only three points behind reigning champion Bagnaia (316 against 319). “I wanted to get a great result today but when I saw that it was starting to rain with my slick tires, I waited to see what Pecco (Francesco Bagnaia’s nickname) did. As soon as he stopped, I followed him,” explained Martin at the end of a race disrupted by rain which almost cost the Spaniard dearly.
Pouring rain
When the lights went out, although all the drivers set off with a vehicle configured for dry races, after the first lap completed in rain which continued to intensify, the majority of them returned to the pits. to leave with a motorcycle equipped with rain tires.
The last five not to have done so returned less than two laps later, the rain having meanwhile intensified further on the Japanese circuit.
After 12 laps of the course (out of 24), the pouring rain and the wet track caused the red flag to be raised for the first time for safety reasons. The drivers were then allowed to return to the track around twenty minutes later. But the conditions having been considered still too dangerous, the race management preferred to definitively interrupt the GP even before the announced resumption of the race.