Riccardo Rossi emerged as the leader in the Moto3 Q1 session at the Japanese GP. As a result, the Italian was one of the last four riders to secure a spot in the battle for pole position at Motegi.

After the first flying laps, Taiyo Furusato (Honda Team Asia) was the leader ahead of Scott Ogden (VisionTrack Racing Team/Honda), Mario Aji (Honda Team Asia) and José Antonio Rueda (Red Bull KTM Ajo). However, several riders only posted their first lap times later on.

Filippo Farioli (Red Bull KTM Tech3) briefly moved into second place, pushing Rueda out of the qualifying positions, and then had a highside at turn two. Joel Kelso (CFMoto Racing PrüstelGP) overtook Furusato with six minutes remaining to become the new leader. At the same time, his teammate, Xavi Artigas, moved into third.

Despite improvements in lap times, the top four remained unchanged, with Kelso, Furusato, Artigas, and Farioli holding those positions.

However, this changed in the final two minutes when Rossi (SIC58 Squadra Corse/Honda) became the new leader, and Rueda moved into fourth. As a result, Artigas fell out of the qualifying zone by 0.039s. The standings didn’t change further until the end, and thus the last four participants in Q2 are Rossi, Kelso, Furusato, and Rueda.

Results:

O conteúdo Riccardo Rossi set the pace of the Moto3 Q1 and moves on to Q2 at Motegi aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.