Tyre compound option removed for Sunday after heavy blistering in MotoGP

During the final lap of the Sprint, Ducati's Francesco Bagnaia entered the pit lane. Afterwards, the reason for this was revealed: Bagnaia's rear-soft tyre had begun to disintegrate. Aprilia's Jorge Martin also experienced issues on the final lap and lost a position to Diogo Moreira due to track limits on the new asphalt at the Motegi circuit.

Speaking to The Race, Michelin boss Piero Taramasso said they told the teams and riders to monitor the tyre temperatures and expected the softs to be at the limit, but agreed to try the rear-soft tyre during the Sprint.

He said: "After the sprint, there were three bikes with quite bad blisters. The blistering is when you generate a lot of heat inside the compound. The construction stays intact, but you get bubbles inside the compound and it opens up and makes holes.

However, tomorrow, riders cannot use the soft as a rear tyre. "We spoke with Dorna, and the decision for the race is that the rear soft won’t be allowed, and they will have to work with the medium or the hard one. The Michelin suggestion, we really strongly suggest to use the rear hard. That’s why we brought it here, but now it’s up to the teams and the riders to decide."

It is also reported that some teams wanted to make the use of hard rear tyres mandatory, but that will not be the case. During the Sprint, two riders used the medium tyres. Marco Bezzecchi had no issues, according to Taramasso, but Jack Miller did experience some blistering on the Pramac Yamaha as well.

As a result, the MotoGP warm-up will increase from 10 to 20 minutes on Sunday, so that riders can get familiar with the rear hard tyre, as requested by Michelin.

After causing an incident at Turn 3 on the first lap, Alex Marquez will have to serve a double long lap penalty on Sunday. The Gresini Racing rider knocked both Pedro Acosta and Fabio Di Giannantonio out of contention after a too ambitious move down the inside.