Ducati MotoGP rider Pecco Bagnaia took his second pole position of the 2025 season, seeing off Honda's Joan Mir in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix.
Bagnaia had been in torrid form through rounds at the Red Bull Ring, Balaton Park, Barcelona and Misano, but work on weight distribution in the post-Misano test seems to have revitalised the Italian in the early stages of the Motegi weekend.
He was on provisional pole after the initial runs in Q2, but had been shuffled down to eighth by the time he could himself improve - with a 1m42.911s lifting him back to first place and securing him the new record lap of Motegi.
That improvement denied Mir a career-first pole, which would've been Honda's first since the 2023 opener.
The rider who had taken that 2023 opener pole, Marc Marquez, was third here for Ducati, and remains in prime position to secure the title this weekend - with his only mathematical rival, brother Alex, down in eighth after having made his way through Q1.
KTM rider Pedro Acosta had a throttle issue on his first Q2 exit but salvaged the session after being sent out late on, placing fourth ahead of Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli - who had also come through Q1.
A late laptime improvement from Mir's team-mate Luca Marini didn't bring a position improvement with it, Marini placing seventh.
Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia), Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia), Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) and Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) rounded out a Q2 covered by just 0.660s.
In a big rush and a bit agitated 💢 @marcmarquez93 got pretty frustrated with the marshals there⚠️#JapaneseGP 🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/WYSD1R9Pyu
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) September 27, 2025
Di Giannantonio was one rider to crash in the pre-qualifying practice session. Marc Marquez was another - and was quite aggressive towards a marshal in trying to get his bike back out on track, which could yet land him in trouble with the stewards.
Japanese GP starting grid
1 Bagnaia 2 Mir 3 M Marquez
4 Acosta 5 Quartararo 6 Morbidelli
7 Marini 8 A Marquez 9 Bezzecchi
10 Fernandez 11 Zarco 12 Di Giannantonio
13 Ogura 14 Miller 15 Aldeguer
16 Oliveira 17 Martin 18 Binder
19 Rins 20 Nakagami 21 Bastianini
22 Chantra 23 Vinales
Rookie Ai Ogura was on pace to advance to Q2 with his final lap, potentially at Alex Marquez's expense, but lost his opportunity with yellow flags for two separate crashes up ahead - with Alex Rins going down at Turn 10 and Brad Binder throwing his KTM down the Turn 12 run-off towards the pit exit.
That's how hard @BradBinder_33 tried to save it 💪😱#JapaneseGP 🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/OOmhsY7gHK
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) September 27, 2025
Ogura did not roll out out of his lap, which was a personal best and a tenth short in the end, but it is not clear whether he would've gone faster without the yellows. He will start 13th, followed by Pramac Yamaha's Jack Miller and fellow rookie Fermin Aldeguer, the Gresini rider down at Turn 5 while trying to improve his time.
Miguel Oliveira followed Alex Marquez on his fastest lap but could only place sixth in Q1, so 16th on the grid, followed by Jorge Martin as the last of the Aprilias.
Still-injured Tech3 KTM rider Maverick Vinales was well adrift at the back, half a second back from next-slowest Somkiat Chantra, with Vinales indicating on Friday he was more limited by bike vibration than lack of fitness at Motegi.
