2019 Motegi Moto3 FP1 Result: Dalla Porta Makes A Fast Start

Japan didn’t offer the warmest of welcomes to the MotoGP circus, a damp surface and cloud cover opening proceedings for Moto3 and showing them the way towards rain tyres early on. Motegi felt like home for the Italians, who were a persistent presence at the top of the timesheets – first with Tony Arbolino and then with Lorenzo Dalla Porta. The championship leader never surrendered the lead and continued to get faster, entering the final five minutes of the session one second ahead of the opposition. That gap shrunk as the pace got hotter but no one managed to do any better than Dalla Porta and the Italian got some more airtime when he lost focus and took an odd tumble at turn five to become the first faller of the weekend in the final minute of FP1.

Aron Canet was the leader’s main threat once again, although the Spaniard took some time to join the top two and separate the Leopard duo, one tenth of a second behind Dalla Porta and a little less than that keeping him ahead of Marcos Ramirez. Arbolino seems to have gotten over his arm trouble from Thailand for now and stayed in fourth position, with John McPhee joining the top five as the final rider within half a second of the leader.

Teammates Jaume Masia and Andrea Migno followed closely, with Niccolo Antonelli making a fairly impressive return from injury in eighth position. Jakub Kornfeil and Sergio Garcia rounded out the top ten, while Tatsuki Suzuki, Buriram victor Albert Arenas and returning rider Can Oncu also finished within a second off the top man. Gabriel Rodrigo was also back in action after hurting himself in Thailand but he took it easy down in 23rd spot.

Results: