Friday 10 October 2014 17:37, UK
Marc Marquez suffered another crash on the first day of practice for the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi.
Marquez, riding for Repsol Honda, could tie up his second successive MotoGP title on Sunday, but his recent form has been nothing like his red-hot start to the season.
The Spaniard won the opening 10 rounds of the 2014 campaign but since his victory at Silverstone he has been unable to finish a race without crashing.
He came home 15th at Misano and was only able to finish 13th at his local Aragon track in the last round after coming down while in the lead.
Despite his slump, Marquez heads into the race with a lead of 75 points over team-mate Dani Pedrosa in the championship - there are three more rounds to come after Motegi in Australia, Malaysia and Spain.
Marquez ran off at the fifth bend in the morning session but recovered to set the second-best time behind the Yamaha of compatriot Jorge Lorenzo.
The second session was topped by the Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso with a time of one minute 45.140, with Lorenzo pushed back into second place.
Marquez was only sixth fastest in the afternoon running, with Pedrosa fourth and Stefan Bradl's LCR Honda and the Yamaha of Valentino Rossi also going quicker.
Free Practice 1: 1 J Lorenzo (Esp) Yamaha 1:45.838; 2 M Marquez (Esp) Honda 1:46.004; 3 A Dovizioso (Ita) Ducati 1:46.072; 4 Y Hernandez (Col) Ducati 1:46.113; 5 V Rossi (Ita) Yamaha 1:46.184; 6 S Bradl (Ger) Honda 1:46.230
Free Practice 2: 1 A Dovizioso (Ita) Ducati 1:45.140; 2 J Lorenzo (Esp) Yamaha 1:45.580; 3 S Bradl (Ger) Honda 1:45.637; 4 D Pedrosa (Esp) Honda 1:45.727; 5 V Rossi (Ita) Yamaha 1:45.890; 6 M Marquez (Esp) Honda 1:45.939
