The Fort Worth Press - Title-chasing Marquez third-fastest in Japan MotoGP practice

Spanish Ducati rider Marquez recorded a best time of 1min 43.36sec in unseasonably warm conditions at Motegi, where temperatures were close to 30C.

That was 0.167sec slower than Aprilia's Marco Bezzecchi, who topped the timesheets despite crashing twice in the morning session.

Marquez is looking to win his seventh world title in Japan this weekend after dominating the competition with 11 Grand Prix wins this season already.

He can seal the deal if he finishes the weekend with at least three more points than his brother and nearest championship rival, Alex Marquez.

Alex Marquez had a tough time in practice, finishing 15th-fastest and missing out on a direct spot in the second qualifying session.

It was the first time the Gresini rider had finished outside the top 10 in practice all season.

Marc Marquez faced the same fate as he went into the final 10 minutes languishing near the bottom of the timesheets, but he put together a fast lap when it counted.

Marquez has a huge championship lead over his brother and still has five weekends left to clinch the title if he fails to get the job done in Japan.

His 512 championship points are already a single-season record for a MotoGP rider.

A wild practice session saw Bezzecchi, defending world champion Jorge Martin, Jack Miller and Franco Morbidelli all crash twice.

KTM's Pedro Acosta also took a spill just seconds after setting the second-quickest time, badly damaging his bike.

Francesco Bagnaia topped the morning practice session, with Marc Marquez third fastest.

The top 10 fastest riders in practice book their tickets for Saturday's second qualifying session, which shapes the first four rows of the grid.

This group are then joined by the two fastest riders from the first qualifying session.

Qualifying determines the grid for both the sprint race on Saturday and the main event GP on Sunday afternoon, with a maximum of 37 points available.

G.George--TFWP