Japanese MotoGP: Kevin Magee previews this weekend’s three races at Motegi

JORGE Lorenzo has led more than half the race laps in MotoGP this year but still trails Valentino Rossi in the points. Can he catch him at Motegi?

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP rider Valentino Rossi of Italy takes a corner during the third free practice session of the MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix in Motegi, Tochigi prefecture on October 10, 2015. AFP PHOTO / KAZUHIRO NOGI

FOUR Grands Prix remain in the 2015 MotoGP season and as the sport heads to Motegi this season, Valentino Rossi remains the man to catch.

FOX SPORTS’ own Kevin Magee previews the action.

MOTOGP

Surely one of the Movistar Yamaha teammates, Valentino Rossi or Jorge Lorenzo, will be the 2015 MotoGP World Champion.

But they’ll be up against it in round 15 which takes place on Honda’s turf at Motegi. Not only is it their home circuit because it’s their home race, they own the circuit!

Movistar Yamaha have already wrapped up the ‘teams’ championship and only disaster could prevent them taking a cleans weep with ‘riders’’ and ‘constructors’ titles as well.

Valentino Rossi rides in practice at Motegi.

Rossi has a slender 14 point lead over his recently faster teammate who has won the Japanese Moto GP for the last two years. Honda’s Dani Pedrosa won the raceboth years before that.

Current World Champion Marquez has never won a Moto GP at Motegi, but did finish second to Lorenzo for the last two years. Marquez has seen his chances of a third consecutive championship go down the gurgler this year, crashing in 5 of 14 races so far.

But we shouldn’t discount Pedrosa either. He is back in top form going by the hard fought battle he had with Rossi for second at Aragon two weeks ago and knows how to win on at Honda’s track.

Ducati should be strong as they have several straights to unleash their horsepower advantage. Andrea Dovisioso started from pole position last year and the GP-15 is definitely a better bike than he had last year. He’s currently sixth in the championship.

His teammate Andrea Iannone sits fourth in the championship and is just 12 points behind Marquez, a scalp that he would love to take in the points battle. We can’t rule out Bradley Smith either. He’s going great guns on the satellite Tech 3 Yamaha.

Incredibly, Lorenzo has led 204 of 347 race laps this season compared Marquez’s 82. Championship leader Rossi has been in front for just 50!

Poor qualifying results have hampered Rossi’s race results throughout the season. Out of the 14 races so far Rossi has only started from the front row three times. That doesn’t compare well to Iannone (four), Lorenzo (10) and Marquez 12.

Jorge Lorenzo rides in practice at Motegi.

Six times the pole sitter has converted that to win this year — Marquez three times, Lorenzo two and Rossi one. That works out that the pole sitter has almost half a chance of winning the race.

Having said that, at this point the weather forecast is saying that rain will arrive early Sunday morning and be heaviest midmorning before easing off later on. We have already seen how that can throw a spanner in the works, Misano being a great example! Take Moto GP bikes, just add water and it seems to carbonate!

MOTO 2

For all intents and purposes the Moto 2 season is done and dusted, with Johann Zarco the champion elect after the unfortunate injury to Tito Rabat which has seen him withdraw from this weekend’s round.

Rabat completed eight laps in practice before withdrawing from the Japanese GP after fracturing his left arm when his training bike suddenly stopped at Almeria at a chicane and he was thrown off.

Medical teams were promptly able to screw and plate his arm but he quickly realised during practice at Motegi that racing wouldn’t be possible this weekend.

That leaves Zarco, who was already the championship leader by 78 points, with an unassailable lead.

But despite being so far in front of his rivals, Zarco seemed to choke a little at Aragon while starring down the barrel of his first title, only managing to come home in sixth for no apparent reason.

Johann Zarco has wrapped up the Moto 2 championship.

After limping home in eighth in the opening round after his gear linkage failed, the Frenchman has posted six wins, five seconds and a third. It is a very difficult thing to play it safe in this game!

Moto 2 rookie Alex Rins is 22 points behind defending champion Rabat in the standings. Just like Iannone on Marquez, Rins would love to grab that scalp.

Australian young gun Josh Hook has a wildcard on Dominique Aegerter’s bike and has a good chance of surprising the regulars. Aegerter nominated Hook to step in for him in the three ‘flyaways’ as they know each other well having done two Suzuka 8 Hours together.

Hook is currently racing in the Japanese Championship on the FCC Superbike and knows the circuit, while he obviously knows Phillip Island and has raced at Sepang also.

MOTO 3

Moto 3’s Danny Kent could have been looking to wrap up title this weekend had he not crashed out of third place on the last corner at Aragon.

He lost a very important 16 points there, reducing his championship lead from a potential 71 to just 55 over Enea Bastianini.

It was clearly a sign of the pressure to be the first British champion in World Championship Road Racing since the late great Barry Sheene in 1977.

Kent looks to have prolonged his own agony until Phillip Island, unless he can rack up 25 for the win or 20 for second in Motegi and Bastianini fails to score a point.

Olivera and Fenati are mathematically still in for a long shot at it, but long shots may well and truly come into play should the forecasters be correct on Sunday.

Remy Gardner will be doing his best on the Mahindra, even though he is stepping up to Moto 2 next season.

Danny Kent led for a long way at Aragon before crashing out.

LOOK AHEAD TO THE AUSTRALIAN GP

At Phillip Island next weekend Anthony West is replacing Karel Abraham in Moto GP.

It’s a great chance for Westy in front of his home crowd, which will also have Josh Hook to cheer on in Moto 2, Remy Gardner in Moto 3 along with two wildcards in Matty Barton and Olly Simpson.

Barton has an older ex-Leopold Racing FTR Honda with a new sponsor SUUS Clothing from Melbourne (isn’t great to see an Australian company helping young Australians in their World Championship endeavours) while Simpson is fresh from the Red Bull Rookies Cup will also be cheered on by what will be a fantastic crowd at one of the best circuits in the world.

Originally published as Japanese MotoGP: Kevin Magee previews this weekend’s three races at Motegi