Holgado and Muñoz win at Motegi with standard Pirelli tyres

Moto2 race, won by Daniel Holgado (Kalex) from second on the grid, the tyre choice was unanimous: all the riders used the soft SC1 for the front and the supersoft SCX for the rear, i.e. the softest compounds available to them. Jake Dixon (Boscoscuro), second, and Diogo Moreira (Kalex), third, complete the podium.
 
· The winner Holgado set the new race record lap in 1’48.739 on the second lap, a time that improves by almost two seconds on that set by Somkiat Chantra in 2023 (1’50.679). All riders lapped below the 2023 race record lap and the pace was also significantly improved: in comparison to the 2023 competition as last year’s one was run in the wet, this year’s race was 29 seconds faster, which translates into a lap improvement of 1.5 seconds.
 
· David Muñoz (KTM) won the Moto3 race, run over a distance of 17 laps, from seventh on the grid. The Spaniard preceded two other KTM riders on the finish line, poleman José Antonio Rueda, second, and Máximo Quiles, who from eighth position on the grid closes in third place. All the riders used soft SC1 compound tyres at the rear, while at the front preferences were equally divided between the soft SC1 and the medium SC2, the latter chosen by all the riders on the podium. José Antonio Rueda set the fastest lap of the race in 1’55.305 on lap 15, improving by almost 4 tenths the previous record set by David Alonso last year (1’55.675).
 
· Both races took place with around 25 degrees Celsius of air temperature and between 35 and 40 degrees of the asphalt, temperatures in line with those of Friday afternoon’s practice.