The Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider completed day one of free practice in ninth position overall with teammate Joan Mir eleventh on the timesheets.

Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS riders Alex Marquez and Joan Mir faced cool and at times damp conditions at Twin Ring Motegi on the opening day of practice for the Japan Grand Prix.

Alex Marquez miraculously avoided serious injury in a spectacular high-side crash out of turn 8 at the end of a damp track FP1 session in which he set the second fastest time. After checks at the medical centre and despite some pain in his left shoulder Marquez returned to the track for FP2 and on a drying track made an impressive comeback to set his fastest time of 1’53.044 for ninth overall.

Joan Mir had his first Moto2 outing at the 4.8km Twin Ring Motegi in FP1 on a damp track and set the 14th fastest time completing just nine laps. As conditions improved for FP2 Mir concentrated on set-up options for the race and finished the day 11th overall with a time of 1’53.135, five seconds faster than FP1.

Tomorrow’s FP3 session is scheduled for 10:55am with qualifying at 3:05pm.

Alex Marquez: 9th, 1’53.044, +0.885, 21 laps, 100 km

“I am happy to be back on the bike after the crash”

“In the morning session it was completely my mistake, it wasn’t necessary to take that risk in those conditions. I was off-line and it was a little bit wet and I had a big highside. Fortunately I am OK, I have a small fracture but nothing important and I had some pain in my body during FP2. I will have physio treatment and then see tomorrow how is my body in FP3 and try for a good result in qualifying. I am happy to be back on the bike after the crash.”

Joan Mir: 11th, 1’53.135, +0.976, 20 laps, 96 km

“Hopefully the weather is better tomorrow”

“I did not do a lot of laps on my first day of Moto2 at Motegi but I feel we are going in the direction to make a good result in the race. Hopefully the weather is better tomorrow so we can improve further and be in good shape for Sunday. No other track compares to Motegi and I like it.”