MotoGP leaves Europe and heads to Asia for the first of three rounds that will bring the season to a close away from the continent. The Japanese Grand Prix, scheduled to take place at the Motegi circuit, marks the start of a demanding tour for both riders and fans, who will have to adjust to the Japanese time zone to follow the sessions live.
As usual, Sky Sport will provide full coverage of the weekend, broadcasting all the scheduled sessions live: from Friday’s free practice sessions through to Saturday’s qualifying and the Sprint race, right up to Sunday morning’s warm-up. Sky subscribers will also be able to follow the event via Now, the streaming platform that replicates the full range of satellite pay-TV content, conveniently on their smartphone, tablet or smart TV.
For those without a Sky subscription, TV8 will still be dedicating plenty of airtime to the MotoGP World Championship. The free-to-air channel will broadcast Saturday’s qualifying sessions and Sprint Race live, allowing a wider audience to follow the decisive moments of the battle for pole position and the weekend’s first points in real time. The coverage of the races, however, will be different: both Saturday’s Sprint Race and Sunday’s Grand Prix will be shown on TV8 as recorded programmes, with the broadcast taking place later than the actual race times at the Japanese circuit.
The decision to broadcast the races on a delayed basis on TV8 is down precisely to the time difference between Italy and Japan, which means the race times are not particularly compatible with free-to-air broadcasting to a wide audience during Italian daytime hours. Motegi, in fact, is seven hours ahead of Italy, which means that the afternoon sessions in Japan correspond to the early hours of the morning here.
For fans who want to follow everything without missing a thing, Sky (and its Now platform) therefore remains the go-to channel for full live coverage, with the option to watch the races on a delayed basis on TV8 at a more convenient time, usually in prime time.
The Motegi weekend represents a crucial test for the overall standings, with several riders still in contention for top positions in both the Riders’ and Constructors’ World Championships. The Japanese circuit, a historic venue for the World Championship, is renowned for its technical layout and long corners, which put both the bikes and the riders to the test, whilst always providing a spectacular show for spectators at the circuit and those watching on TV.
As always, the exact timings of the sessions will be confirmed and detailed by the organisers and broadcasters in the days leading up to the race weekend, allowing fans to plan exactly when to watch the practice sessions, qualifying, Sprint races and Grand Prix.
Written by Fabio Averna
Article produced by the AiSportNews newsroom with the support of artificial intelligence tools.