The Japan weekend kicked off the Asian tour, and we came into it full of energy after Misano, knowing we could really fight until the very end.
Physically and mentally I was feeling great, and the days leading up to the first throttle twist flew by between all the pre-race commitments.

Free Practice started with a bang — literally. I crashed twice and did a fair bit of damage to the bike.
But in pre-qualifying I bounced back, rode fast, and topped the timesheets to go straight into Q2.

Saturday started off a bit rough… and ended worse.
In Q2 I couldn’t push the way I wanted, and in the end, I had to start from P9.
Motegi isn’t exactly the easiest place to recover, especially in the Sprint — but I knew I had to try.
It just lasted ten seconds.

Right after the start, in Turn 1, I was launched into the air.
I didn’t even understand what had happened.
In the gravel, I saw Martín on the ground…
He was holding his shoulder — turns out he ended up with a fracture.
I was lucky — nothing broken — and I made it back to the box, but I took a couple of solid knocks.
Didn’t feel them right away, but once things cooled down… yeah, they hit.

Sunday morning, I woke up pretty banged up.
But then the race adrenaline kicked in, and the pain faded.
I got off to a good start, held position, and started my comeback.
After a few laps I was already in P5, right behind Morbidelli and Mir.
I worked to get past them, made it into P4, but Mir had built up a decent gap.

I gave everything I had — maybe even more.
I know full well that saving energy isn’t really my thing…

In the end, I brought home a solid result.
Based on our pre-race expectations, it wasn’t exactly the goal…
but given how things played out — yeah, it’s fine.

And honestly, looking back at Saturday’s crash, it’s already something that I walked away with just some bruises — and Martín with a fracture.
Could’ve gone worse.

Now it’s on to MANDALIKA — full throttle!