The 2023 MotoGP championship series came to an end at Valencia this weekend where Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia was crowned champion. This gives Bagnaia back-to-back titles in the Premier class.
Title contender Jorge Martin (Ducati) kept things interesting by winning Saturday’s Sprint race ahead of Brad Binder (KTM) in second and Marc Marquez (Honda) in third. This put Martin just 14 points behind Bagnaia going into Sunday’s main event.
Things did not go well for Martin in Sunday’s race, however. After a mistake while battling Bagnaia for the lead put Martin back in 8th place, he crashed with Marc Marquez while battling back to the front, ending the race for both riders. Bagnaia went on to win ahead of second place Johann Zarco (Ducati) and third place Binder.
The riders test their new, 2024 bikes tomorrow at Valencia. Last minute signings were announced for 2024 as Luca Marini officially joins Repsol Honda and Fabio Di Giannantonio will take his place at Mooney VR46 Racing.
For full results and points for Saturday’s Sprint race, visit the MotoGP site here.
For full results and points for Sunday’s MotoGP race, visit the MotoGP site here.
Since the AMA road race series was destroyed it is super rare to see an American road racer on the world stage.
Next year I guess there is sort of a next best thing. Trackhouse is going to have an Aprilia race team running stars and stripes livery.
I suppose having a NASCAR team in MotoGP is going to cause a few image problems. Whatever. I wish them well.
Wondering if anyone else noticed the look on Marquez face after his first run on the Ducati?
No fanboy here for sure but I’ll be the first to predict he takes the championship next year on a year old Ducati.
The podium is yours john 🙃
He was on previous year Ducati, yes. Got 4th fastest place. Pecco was 11th on the new Ducati. Nonthing to talk about. And MM93 has 6 races on Honda according to contract as far as it was mentioned. Am I wrong?
That was fear. He’s doomed. 🙂
I think Marques will win
I think Marques will win. Apart from he drove present year Ducati. Not the future one
What happened to Marco Bezzecchi? It seemed to be something serious.
Oops. Sorry. Saw him testing the bike today.
Complex series of events during the race, which kept the tension high. Pecco was free himself of the fear of crashing out once Martin lost his cool. Miller of course never disappoints me with his inability to stay upright when it’s possible to show. It’s a crime DiGi was penalized he may have won if the race was one lap longer.
well congrats to Pecco.
i watched a recent Ben Spies interview regarding his thoughts on the direction of MotoGp.
Ben gave some opinions AND explained his reasons for those; regarding tires, electronics, and aeros.
in a nutshell…Ben explains very well that, sure, lap records and top speeds are off the charts but racing, the bottom line and what the fans want to see, is now happening less and is more dangerous.
Ben explained himself clearly enough that even I could understand his points.
Ben commented on other things, ie. crashes that we “experts” decried were due to nothing else than so-and-so being a careless animal and wanting to murder other pilots. Ben explained a couple specific examples of crashes which were simply due to today’s bike’s speed and handling…not a thing said about the riders making a huge mistake made by the pilot. In those examples Ben explained that he saw what was happening as it happened and knew exactly what the outcome was going to be and why.
It’s wierd now to think about the Japanese teams receiving concessions.
I now wonder if Honda/Yamaha knew what was really best for the sport/riders and that is why they held off from following suit in the way of the Euro teams have instead hoping someday that the sport would return back to racing and not just breaking top speeds and lap records and less racing.
So what concessions are Yamaha and Honda going to receive? Are they going to make their bikes faster and less manouverable like the Eurobikes?
That’s not good for the sport.
I am completely deflated for 2024 and beyond even with MM on a Duc.
I like Ben, seen several of his interviews. He’s wrong about one thing, racing is closer now than it was in his day or at any point in the history of the premier class. Passing happens more frequently now simply because the riders and bikes are more closely matched. That’s also what makes passing so hard. It was never easy before, but especially when you were 3+ seconds away from the closest rider from the 5th lap on. The tight racing most think they remember were a few rare races per year. Most races riders were spread out by many seconds per place.
I don’t know if I believe that it’s more dangerous, either. Maybe it was safer for less interaction between riders on track? Riders have always crashed and had their careers compromised by injury. I don’t know if anyone tracks crash statistics. It’s be interesting to see.
i’m going to just go ahead and take a former world class top rider’s word on this entire matter.
Ben explained, in detail, why/how there are actually less passing areas/opportunities than ‘before aero/electronics and even the new tires that allow for higher speeds’.
it’s harder to slow the bike from much higher speeds to safely maneuver it when needing to do so unexpectedly. pilots are now often not in real good control of the bike during high speed overtaking and have to stand the bike up in some situations which simply can and will causes crashes in the right conditions.
its harder to maneuver at the speeds nowadays.
the ECU is in full control of the bike at all times at each and every corner and will not deliver more power than it is programmed to deliver for each and every point on the track. Ben explained that it often times take a little extra throttle to ‘power’ out of some dicey situations and with the ECU in full control…that is now impossible. there is nothing…no more throttle than what the ECU is programmed to allow for that point in time/place on the track.
i’d suggest that Martin (and MM) would agree that passing can and is a lot more difficult in numerous situations these days as compared to days gone by.
A lot of these assumptions are wrong and it doesn’t require first hand experience to understand it. Speeds are only very slightly higher, not “much” higher. There are lap records on these tracks that are several years old.
The riders and teams are also in full control of how much intervention the traction control systems impart. There is still plenty of “throttle steering” going on out there. See the black stripes on the track surface. If the ECU were always in “full control” it would be impossible to high-side but we still see that happen.
Dirty air was a thing before bikes began sprouting wings.
All of the differences are small from Spies’ day. It’s harder to pass simply because all of the bikes and riders are more closely matched and everyone is closer to the limits all of the time. That said, plenty of passing still occurs, because they are closer to each other on the track than they would’ve been when the class was less competitive.
if i understand it right…the pilots know the areas of the track where the ECU will give them full power and the areas where they will not have access to full power.
which areas do you suppose they are going to attempt overtaking?
which areas are they not?
the ECU limits overtaking…no?
What about fuel consumption?
yes, there is probably fuel consumption.
With the exception of a Ducati passing a slower bike on a long straightaway, they will almost always attempt passing at corner entry, on the brakes. With the exception of very long straightaways, all MotoGP bikes have more available power than traction or wheelie resistance.
There is a more nuanced consideration of where a given bike can take advantage of mechanical grip (chassis setup) to harness more power, as well as fuel mapping strategies to make race distance (you’ll notice that the Ducatis don’t blow past the Yamaha on the straight every lap). This is how bikes with such excessive power can out-drive one-another off of corners.
Sounds like Martin kind of did himself in. He seemed to be confident that he had the speed. But on that day he didn’t have the patience.He stuck his nose in where it didn’t belong, and wouldn’t really do him any good, and he paid dearly for it.
Experience gentlemen. Sometimes you just have to earn it.
You only have to have the lead at the end of the race. The whole rest of the race is about being there at that time. He did have the win slow strategy knocking around in his brain. But that comes later. You have to get to that stage in the race first.
I was over scheduled this year and didn’t ride any events, living in exile in the northeast will do that to you. I’m kinda thinking I need to ride a few extra next season. Maybe I should buy another trials bike. Those guys seem to come through when all else fails in areas of little opportunity.
Oh for the old days when events were cool and everywhere all the time. You know, when the boomers were young. Take that booger machines! There’s more of you. But you ain’t bringin’ it 🙂
i saw digiantonio finish 2nd on the road and talk to simon. wha haapn?
Post-race tire pressure check resulted in a penalty that put him back in 4th.
They need to do something about that rule. It’s unacceptable for a rider to lose positions over a tiny discrepancy in tire pressure.
Never a dull moment in that race. Was thinking Pecco would put it into cruise and just enjoy the race from off the podium. A great finish to the season.
Helluva season. The KTM’s sure made a mess of it yesterday. Cant wait to see MM on the Duck next year.