2015 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix
# 2015 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix

The 2015 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix was the fifteenth round of the 2015 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season, consisting of the MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 classes. It was held at the Twin Ring Motegi in Motegi on 11 October 2015.

In the premier class, the race began in damp conditions but dried out over the course of the race. Jorge Lorenzo had started on pole but faded to third with tyre issues, and it was Dani Pedrosa that achieved his first victory since the 2014 Czech Republic Grand Prix, and as a result, became the eighth rider to record 50 victories at World Championship level. Valentino Rossi extended his championship lead to eighteen with a second-place finish, ahead of Lorenzo.

During free practice, Alex de Angelis crashed heavily and was taken to hospital in a critical but stable condition. De Angelis missed the remainder of the season as a result of the crash.

In the intermediate Moto2 class, Tito Rabat pulled out of the weekend due to injury and as a result, Johann Zarco won his first World Championship title, and the first by a French rider in the intermediate class since Olivier Jacque in 2000. Zarco went on to win the shortened race ahead of German duo Jonas Folger and Sandro Cortese. In the Moto3 race also shortened by weather delays, Niccolò Antonelli took his second win of the season ahead of Miguel Oliveira and Jorge Navarro, while championship leader Danny Kent maintained his points lead with sixth place.

## Classification

### MotoGP

| Pos. | No. | Rider | Team | Manufacturer | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | 26 | Dani Pedrosa | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 24 | 46:50.767 | 6 | 25 |
| 2 | 46 | Valentino Rossi | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 24 | +8.573 | 2 | 20 |
| 3 | 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 24 | +12.127 | 1 | 16 |
| 4 | 93 | Marc Márquez | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 24 | +27.841 | 3 | 13 |
| 5 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati Team | Ducati | 24 | +35.085 | 4 | 11 |
| 6 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | LCR Honda | Honda | 24 | +37.263 | 8 | 10 |
| 7 | 38 | Bradley Smith | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 24 | +37.667 | 9 | 9 |
| 8 | 21 | Katsuyuki Nakasuga | Yamaha Factory Racing Team | Yamaha | 24 | +44.654 | 15 | 8 |
| 9 | 8 | Héctor Barberá | Avintia Racing | Ducati | 24 | +48.572 | 18 | 7 |
| 10 | 45 | Scott Redding | EG 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | 24 | +50.121 | 12 | 6 |
| 11 | 41 | Aleix Espargaró | Team Suzuki Ecstar | Suzuki | 24 | +1:00.535 | 7 | 5 |
| 12 | 72 | Takumi Takahashi | Team HRC with Nissin | Honda | 24 | +1:01.211 | 19 | 4 |
| 13 | 69 | Nicky Hayden | Aspar MotoGP Team | Honda | 24 | +1:11.261 | 21 | 3 |
| 14 | 68 | Yonny Hernández | Octo Pramac Racing | Ducati | 24 | +1:13.896 | 14 | 2 |
| 15 | 63 | Mike Di Meglio | Avintia Racing | Ducati | 24 | +1:15.421 | 24 | 1 |
| 16 | 19 | Álvaro Bautista | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 24 | +1:20.507 | 16 | |
| 17 | 50 | Eugene Laverty | Aspar MotoGP Team | Honda | 24 | +1:31.224 | 20 | |
| 18 | 6 | Stefan Bradl | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 24 | +1:46.833 | 13 | |
| 19 | 64 | Kousuke Akiyoshi | AB Motoracing | Honda | 24 | +2:00.072 | 26 | |
| 20 | 24 | Toni Elías | Forward Racing | Yamaha Forward | 23 | +1 lap | 25 | |
| Ret | 44 | Pol Espargaró | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 22 | Accident | 11 | |
| Ret | 43 | Jack Miller | LCR Honda | Honda | 16 | Accident | 22 | |
| Ret | 25 | Maverick Viñales | Team Suzuki Ecstar | Suzuki | 13 | Accident | 10 | |
| Ret | 76 | Loris Baz | Forward Racing | Yamaha Forward | 13 | Handling | 23 | |
| Ret | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Ducati Team | Ducati | 10 | Engine | 5 | |
| Ret | 9 | Danilo Petrucci | Octo Pramac Racing | Ducati | 8 | Accident | 17 | |
| DNS | 15 | Alex de Angelis | E-Motion IodaRacing Team | ART | | Did not start | | |
| Sources: |||||||||

### Moto2

Due to weather conditions which caused delays in the schedule, the race distance was reduced from 23 to 15 laps.

| Pos. | No. | Rider | Manufacturer | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | 5 | Johann Zarco | Kalex | 15 | 31:17.900 | 1 | 25 |
| 2 | 94 | Jonas Folger | Kalex | 15 | +4.505 | 3 | 20 |
| 3 | 11 | Sandro Cortese | Kalex | 15 | +15.433 | 9 | 16 |
| 4 | 25 | Azlan Shah | Kalex | 15 | +17.348 | 12 | 13 |
| 5 | 55 | Hafizh Syahrin | Kalex | 15 | +22.858 | 6 | 11 |
| 6 | 88 | Ricard Cardús | Suter | 15 | +24.970 | 17 | 10 |
| 7 | 3 | Simone Corsi | Kalex | 15 | +25.759 | 16 | 9 |
| 8 | 22 | Sam Lowes | Speed Up | 15 | +27.024 | 4 | 8 |
| 9 | 23 | Marcel Schrötter | Tech 3 | 15 | +27.485 | 21 | 7 |
| 10 | 4 | Randy Krummenacher | Kalex | 15 | +28.062 | 18 | 6 |
| 11 | 40 | Álex Rins | Kalex | 15 | +30.768 | 5 | 5 |
| 12 | 7 | Lorenzo Baldassarri | Kalex | 15 | +32.685 | 10 | 4 |
| 13 | 71 | Tomoyoshi Koyama | NTS | 15 | +33.995 | 29 | 3 |
| 14 | 72 | Yuki Takahashi | Moriwaki | 15 | +36.582 | 25 | 2 |
| 15 | 36 | Mika Kallio | Speed Up | 15 | +43.672 | 20 | 1 |
| 16 | 60 | Julián Simón | Speed Up | 15 | +48.256 | 14 | |
| 17 | 2 | Jesko Raffin | Kalex | 15 | +49.421 | 28 | |
| 18 | 73 | Álex Márquez | Kalex | 15 | +51.712 | 15 | |
| 19 | 57 | Edgar Pons | Kalex | 15 | +1:20.982 | 24 | |
| 20 | 96 | Louis Rossi | Tech 3 | 15 | +1:31.219 | 26 | |
| 21 | 66 | Florian Alt | Suter | 15 | +1:36.116 | 30 | |
| 22 | 30 | Takaaki Nakagami | Kalex | 15 | +1:41.127 | 7 | |
| 23 | 70 | Robin Mulhauser | Kalex | 13 | +2 laps | 22 | |
| Ret | 39 | Luis Salom | Kalex | 9 | Accident | 13 | |
| Ret | 10 | Thitipong Warokorn | Kalex | 8 | Accident | 19 | |
| Ret | 12 | Thomas Lüthi | Kalex | 7 | Accident Damage | 2 | |
| Ret | 19 | Xavier Siméon | Kalex | 5 | Front Tyre Wear | 11 | |
| Ret | 97 | Xavi Vierge | Tech 3 | 4 | Accident | 27 | |
| Ret | 49 | Axel Pons | Kalex | 4 | Retirement | 8 | |
| Ret | 16 | Joshua Hook | Kalex | 3 | Accident | 23 | |
| DNS | 1 | Tito Rabat | Kalex | | Did not start | | |
| OFFICIAL MOTO2 REPORT ||||||||

### Moto3

Due to weather conditions which caused delays in the schedule, the race distance was reduced from 20 to 13 laps.

| Pos. | No. | Rider | Manufacturer | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | 23 | Niccolò Antonelli | Honda | 13 | 28:03.391 | 2 | 25 |
| 2 | 44 | Miguel Oliveira | KTM | 13 | +1.053 | 5 | 20 |
| 3 | 9 | Jorge Navarro | Honda | 13 | +8.529 | 6 | 16 |
| 4 | 32 | Isaac Viñales | KTM | 13 | +11.074 | 7 | 13 |
| 5 | 63 | Zulfahmi Khairuddin | KTM | 13 | +13.043 | 15 | 11 |
| 6 | 52 | Danny Kent | Honda | 13 | +15.224 | 4 | 10 |
| 7 | 33 | Enea Bastianini | Honda | 13 | +15.873 | 3 | 9 |
| 8 | 98 | Karel Hanika | KTM | 13 | +17.563 | 19 | 8 |
| 9 | 17 | John McPhee | Honda | 13 | +18.153 | 24 | 7 |
| 10 | 7 | Efrén Vázquez | Honda | 13 | +18.556 | 27 | 6 |
| 11 | 88 | Jorge Martín | Mahindra | 13 | +19.896 | 23 | 5 |
| 12 | 84 | Jakub Kornfeil | KTM | 13 | +20.892 | 11 | 4 |
| 13 | 24 | Tatsuki Suzuki | Mahindra | 13 | +25.145 | 20 | 3 |
| 14 | 55 | Andrea Locatelli | Honda | 13 | +28.455 | 34 | 2 |
| 15 | 21 | Francesco Bagnaia | Mahindra | 13 | +28.849 | 10 | 1 |
| 16 | 91 | Gabriel Rodrigo | KTM | 13 | +29.988 | 25 | |
| 17 | 41 | Brad Binder | KTM | 13 | +30.719 | 9 | |
| 18 | 29 | Stefano Manzi | Mahindra | 13 | +31.949 | 21 | |
| 19 | 95 | Jules Danilo | Honda | 13 | +32.146 | 28 | |
| 20 | 16 | Andrea Migno | KTM | 13 | +35.048 | 17 | |
| 21 | 58 | Juan Francisco Guevara | Mahindra | 13 | +47.242 | 14 | |
| 22 | 96 | Manuel Pagliani | Mahindra | 13 | +48.796 | 18 | |
| 23 | 65 | Philipp Öttl | KTM | 13 | +49.372 | 13 | |
| 24 | 48 | Lorenzo Dalla Porta | Husqvarna | 13 | +56.860 | 16 | |
| 25 | 27 | Keisuke Kurihara | Honda | 13 | +59.731 | 35 | |
| 26 | 6 | María Herrera | Husqvarna | 13 | +1:07.035 | 26 | |
| 27 | 40 | Darryn Binder | Mahindra | 13 | +1:19.621 | 30 | |
| 28 | 5 | Romano Fenati | KTM | 13 | +1:29.664 | 1 | |
| 29 | 22 | Ana Carrasco | KTM | 13 | +1:52.305 | 33 | |
| Ret | 2 | Remy Gardner | Mahindra | 10 | Accident | 29 | |
| Ret | 11 | Livio Loi | Honda | 4 | Accident Damage | 8 | |
| Ret | 76 | Hiroki Ono | Honda | 2 | Accident | 12 | |
| Ret | 34 | Ryo Mizuno | Honda | 1 | Accident | 32 | |
| Ret | 10 | Alexis Masbou | Honda | 1 | Accident | 22 | |
| Ret | 19 | Alessandro Tonucci | Mahindra | 1 | Retirement | 31 | |
| DNS | 20 | Fabio Quartararo | Honda | | Did not start | | |
| OFFICIAL MOTO3 REPORT ||||||||

## Championship standings after the race (MotoGP)

Below are the standings for the top five riders and constructors after round fifteen has concluded.

| Pos. | Rider | Points |
| - | - | - |
| 1 | Valentino Rossi | 283 |
| 2 | Jorge Lorenzo | 265 |
| 3 | Marc Márquez | 197 |
| 4 | Andrea Iannone | 172 |
| 5 | Dani Pedrosa | 154 |
| Pos. | Constructor | Points |
| 1 | Yamaha | 342 |
| 2 | Honda | 285 |
| 3 | Ducati | 221 |
| 4 | Suzuki | 110 |
| 5 | Yamaha Forward | 33 |
| Pos. | Team | Points |
| 1 | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | 548 |
| 2 | Repsol Honda Team | 356 |
| 3 | Ducati Team | 322 |
| 4 | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 240 |
| 5 | Team Suzuki Ecstar | 155 |

* Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
