Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46 Master Camp‘s Manuel Gonzalez and Kohta Nozane were pushing right till the end of the Moto2 qualifying sessions at the Mobility Resort Motegi today. They took part in the Q2 and Q1 session respectively and secured 10th and 22nd place on the grid for tomorrow‘s Grand Prix of Japan.
Gonzalez had secured a direct spot in Q2 and was feeling ready to face the fierce competition. He set a 1‘50.855s that briefly saw him in fourth place and improved his time to a 1‘50.654s on his next try, but he didn‘t improve his placement and headed back to the box. Finding himself in 11th with about 4 minutes left to go after the pit stop, the Spaniard gritted his teeth. A strong last sector on lap 6 resulted in a 1‘50.511s that moved him up to tenth. Unable to book further progress on his final try, he ended the session in tenth place.
Nozane took part in Q1 and struggled to find a good feeling right away. A 1‘56.046s benchmark lap left him in 16th place at the halfway stage. But the home hero regrouped. Setting four personal best sectors, he clocked a 1‘50.878s that briefly moved him up to fourth. However, as the times dropped, the number-5 rider was relegated to eighth. He responded with a 1‘50.824s on lap 6 but stayed in eighth place. Unable to better his time on his next two tries, he kept his position and will start from eighth on the grid in tomorrow‘s Race.
The Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46 Master Camp duo will be back in action tomorrow at 13:15 local track time (GMT +9) for the Race.
