Motegi MotoGP: Marc Marquez sets record pace on spare Honda

Marquez had a fraught Friday by his standards, crashing in the morning and unhappy with his handling all day.

He then had to park at the trackside early in Saturday's opening session and get a lift back for his second bike.

But once up to speed on the spare, Marquez quickly moved to the top and then put in a record lap of 1m44.940s.

That gave him the final top spot in the session by two tenths of a second over Valentino Rossi's Yamaha.

Marquez can clinch his second straight MotoGP title this weekend if he maintains his current 75-point margin over team-mate Dani Pedrosa.

Rossi was edged down towards the foot of the top 10 cut-off for automatic Q2 places late in practice three, before a series of late quick laps moved him up to second.

He headed a trio of Yamahas, with Tech 3's Pol Espargaro putting in a time good enough for an eventual third before slewing into the gravel and falling late on. Jorge Lorenzo was fourth.

Andrea Iannone's late push to ensure a Q2 place took him to fifth, with Bradley Smith, Cal Crutchlow, Pedrosa, Andrea Dovizioso and Stefan Bradl also avoiding having to go through Q1.

Both Friday pacesetter Dovizioso and Bradl earned their Q2 spots by virtue of day one times that they could not improve on in this session. Dovizioso's Friday afternoon lap was still quicker than anyone bar Marquez managed in practice three.

Aleix Espargaro is the surprise name in the Q1 pack. He briefly edged into the combined top 10 late in practice three before being pushed back to 12th.

Alvaro Bautista and Yonny Hernandez also found themselves shuffled beyond the Q2 cut-off as the likes of Iannone, Rossi and Crutchlow rescued their top-10 places with late laps.

The local riders ended practice 15th and 16th, with Yamaha's guest Katsuyuki Nakasuga one place ahead of Aspar Honda rider Hiroshi Aoyama, who began Saturday with his second crash of the weekend.

PRACTICE THREE TIMES: