After the FP1 in dry conditions, the rain affected the afternoon at the Twin Ring Circuit in Motegi, forcing the most of riders to stay in the pits for a long time.
Jack Miller is incisive in both free practice sessions and in the FP1 he conquers a good P8 that would allow him to qualify directly to Q2 in case of rain tomorrow morning. In FP2 the Australian rider is the first one to go out on track with slicks tyres and he immediately sets the best crono then finishing in P4.
Danilo Petrucci experiences some problems in FP1 and focuses on the bike set up without trying the time attack (P17). In FP2 Petrux gets back on track with a different setup and regains confidence (P3) despite the track conditions that do not allow him to improve the morning lap-time.
P17 – Danilo Petrucci
“In the morning we risked with the set up but the choice was wrong. We worked during and after FP1 and we made some improvements in FP2. Tomorrow we will still have to work to try to stay in Q2. The last time I was so struggling on Friday was at Le Mans where I conquered the podium…”.
P8 – Jack Miller
“I’m satisfied with what we did in FP1. The feeling with the bike was good. In FP1 I could have done even better but on my best lap I made a mistake. In the end we did some good laps also in FP2 with the slicks and this gives me confidence in view of tomorrow”.