Tech3’s riders were eager to get out on track on Friday morning at the Mobility Resort Motegi to try out the new surface and understand its grip. After light rain fell through the early moments of FP1, conditions were close to perfect for Practice.

The afternoon session was disrupted eight minutes in when a red flag was shown following Ai Ogura’s blown engine. After a brief delay of just over ten minutes, Practice resumed around the 4.8km track.

The tricky conditions in FP1 held Bastianini back on Friday morning, when he set the 19th fastest time, but the Italian found his groove in the afternoon as he lapped in the low 1’44s with a used soft Michelin rear tyre.

‘La Bestia’ backed that strong rhythm up when his first time-attack lifted him inside the top ten with eleven minutes to go. With an automatic Q2 spot on the line in the closing moments, the 28-year-old delivered with his final lap of the day as he climbed to fifth. Just 0.3s off Alex Marquez’s new lap record, this was Bastianini’s best Friday result since the Italian Grand Prix in May.

Viñales returned to MotoGP action after a four-race absence and spent Friday recovering the feeling with his KTM RC16. Pleased with how his recovering left shoulder reacted around a brake-heavy layout, ‘Top Gun’ shaved more than six tenths of a second off his personal best time from FP1 to Practice.

Bastianini and Viñales will be back in action in Japan on Saturday in FP2 at 10:10 (UTC+9) before Qualifying starts at 10:50 (UTC+9), which will set the grid for the 12-lap Sprint at 15:00 (UTC+9).

Enea Bastianini: “It was a good day, especially the afternoon. The grip of the new surface is normal, but it’s very good for the tyre life. I’m a bit surprised about that. Usually, we suffer with this a bit on Friday and the difference between new and used tyres is high, but today my lap times were consistent throughout Practice. Also, I did my best time at the end of a longer run. I think the new tarmac has helped us do it, but the bike is also working well. Being in Q2 will help us a lot so let’s try to replicate this speed tomorrow. If we can do that in Qualifying, I am quite confident for the Sprint.”

Maverick Viñales: “It’s not the best track layout to make your return! There are massive hard-braking zones so it’s quite demanding - but it’s a place to start. My body feels quite good. I expected to struggle more with my forearms. Now it’s important to focus on the job and improving the bike. Obviously, I’m a bit out of touch in terms of the feelings the bike is giving me. I need to really adapt to what the bike needs to go fast. We have good data to study from Pedro (Acosta) and Enea. We need to learn and improve. I’ve felt for a long time that I have no flow with the bike, and that’s about confidence. We need to build this up. That’s why my objective this weekend is to finish the races and, step-by-step, we’ll start to recover this confidence.”