>> Jack Miller achieved his first victory of the season, 28 races after the previous one, which had been at the 2021 French GP. He is the sixth different winner this year in MotoGP.
>> On Saturday it was Marc Márquez who returned to pole position, 1,071 days after the previous one, which had been at the 2019 Japanese GP. Since then, there had been 50 Grand Prix without pole for the Spaniard, of which he contested 25, and 13 different drivers have achieved pole positions in that period.
>> Márquez is the ninth different poleman this season, which is a new MotoGP record.
>> That pole was the 91st of Marc Márquez’s career in the world championship, and the 63rd in MotoGP.
>> It also marked the end of a string of 21 races without a pole position for Honda, the longest since the start of its current project in 1982. However, the Japanese manufacturer is still without a podium finish on Sunday, for the 15th consecutive race, which which is also its longest drought since 1982.
Ducati is still at the top of MotoGP, and the numbers for the Japanese GP reflect this
>> Ducati may not have taken pole in Japan, but it was in the first two places on the grid. The brand was represented in the front row for the 36th consecutive time.
>> With Miller’s victory, the Italian manufacturer celebrated its sixth consecutive victory, the eleventh of the season. That’s as many as in 2007, the year of Casey Stoner ‘s title, and there are still four races left to try to improve on that result.
>> It was also Ducati’s sixth victory at Motegi, the first since that exciting and historic 2017. Ducati is the second most successful brand on the Japanese MotoGP circuit, behind Honda (10).
>> Ducati has extended two of its recent records by appearing in the top three for the 22nd consecutive race and having already racked up 26 podium finishes this season.
>> For the fourth consecutive appointment, only Ducati riders have completed laps in the lead, from first to last. Since the start of the season, Ducati has led 68.1% of the laps (265 of 389), compared to 19.5% for Yamaha, 4.4% for Honda and KTM, 2.3% for Suzuki and 1.3% from Aprilia.
>> None of the current top four drivers in the championship got on the podium in Japan, something unheard of this year. Quartararo increased his lead for the first time since the Austrian GP .
>> KTM also got a breather this weekend in Japan as Brad Binder qualified on the front row for the first time this season and took his first podium finish since the Indonesian GP earlier in the year. The brand had never reached a podium finish at Motegi, with its best result there being 11th place.
>> Another novelty in this Japanese Grand Prix was that Aleix Espargaró did not score, something that had never happened this season. However, he is the only driver, along with Luca Marini, who has not yet retired in any race.
>> The Japanese Grand Prix was the 150th for Marc Márquez and Pol Espargaró in MotoGP, and the 100th for Johann Zarco.
>> Although rain prevented the all-time lap record from being improved on Saturday, the fastest race time was lowered this weekend on Sunday, as Motegi returned to the calendar three years later. The improvement on the 2014 record is just over three tenths and the new reference is held by Miller (1:45.198).
>> The highest top speed was 317.6 km/h, a maximum set by Enea Bastianini’s Ducati. The previous record, set in 2015, was lowered by 3.3 km/h.
