MotoGP bosses have said they expect Sunday's Motegi MotoGP race to sun on schedule despite weather and a lack of an air ambulance forcing the cancellation of all today's free practice sessions.
Dense cloud and fog, which means low visibility, have prevented the air ambulance from leaving its base which is only five minutes' flight time away from the track and there is no other viable way to getting injured riders to a trauma-capable hospital other than a hour's road journey which is 'unacceptable'.
There is currently nothing set in concrete concerning tomorrow and Sunday's schedules because it all depends on what the weather does.
"Nothing is fixed because of the weather but we aim to give riders as much track time as possible. We have prepared a possible schedule for Saturday but we expect to race on Sunday as the weather will be significantly improved," said race director Mike Webb, speaking at Motegi.
He added that if the air ambulance is unable to fly in to the circuit, it will dismantled, put on a truck, driven to the track and re-assembled on site.
It is thought that there will be rain tomorrow morning and then track action will commence after lunch. If that doesn't happen, there will be practice and qualifying sessions on Sunday morning followed afternoon races. There is no possibility of a Monday race, according to Dorna spokesman Javier Alonso.
