MotoGP

The high-pressure nature of professional sport and the personal sacrifices that must be made to become elite often make sportsmen and women polarising characters. It seems that fact is only heightened in motorsport. But, very occasionally, one comes along who totally bucks the trend, who is universally appreciated. Nicky Hayden typified the latter category. One

The Italian manufacturer will likely shake-up its line-up for the 2023 season, with Jack Miller expected to lose his place at the factory squad. PLUS: Why Ducati holds all the power in its MotoGP rider dilemma  French Grand Prix winner Enea Bastianini and Pramac’s Jorge Martin are the favourites to get the Australian’s seat, with

The 2022 campaign has been extremely difficult for all Honda riders on the radically revised RC213V, with Espargaro only cracking the top 10 once since his podium on the opening night of the championship in Qatar back at the start of March. Struggling throughout the Le Mans weekend, Espargaro qualified 11th and remained there in

On Friday at the French Grand Prix, MotoGP riders expressed concerns to Dorna Sports’ CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta during the safety commission about the precarious nature of contracts nowadays. This was in response to Speed Up ousting Romano Fenati from his Moto2 contract just six races into the 2022 season. Due to the economic effects of

The Gresini Ducati rider looked poised to duke it out for victory at Le Mans with factory counterpart Bagnaia as the pair emerged with the strongest pace late on. But a crash for Bagnaia with seven laps remaining gifted Bastianini a win that has thrust him back into championship contention after a tough recent run

The veteran Spaniard fended off home hero Fabio Quartararo to claim third in last Sunday’s Le Mans race, marking his third-successive podium finish in 2022 and fourth overall. It puts Espargaro just four points behind Quartararo in the championship standings, with the Aprilia rider consistently proving himself and his package as genuine title contenders. But

The six-time world champion continues to struggle for form on the radically overhauled 2022 Honda and could only manage 10th on the grid in qualifying. Ahead of the race Marquez felt his pace was good enough only to battle for the top seven at best, with the Spaniard crossing the line sixth having let Pramac’s

The Gresini rider reeled in Bagnaia before his rival crashed to continue his impressive start to the season, as he closed the gap to the top of the standings on leader Fabio Quartararo and second-place rider Aleix Espargaro. Jack Miller took second place for Ducati ahead of Aprilia’s Espargaro who claimed his third consecutive podium,

The 2020 world champion was closing in on the Ducati of Jack Miller for third at the mid-point of the Le Mans race having broken away slightly from the Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro behind. But on lap 15 of 27 Mir crashed out at the final corner, joining team-mate Alex Rins in early retirement in

The Yamaha rider was expected to fight for victory on Sunday at Le Mans having shown the strongest race pace all weekend throughout the practice sessions. But he got a poor launch from fourth on the grid and struggled to overtake, dropping to eighth at one point and eventually recovered to sixth – before several

Bastianini won Sunday’s French GP at Le Mans after a brief dice with Bagnaia that ended up with the factory Ducati rider making a mistake while leading on lap 21 of 27 and crashing out a few corners later. It marked the third win of the season for Bastianini aboard his Gresini-run 2021-spec Ducati and

Jack Miller got the holeshot from second on the grid at the start of the race, but soon dropped behind polesitter Bagnaia on the sister factory Ducati and the fast-starting Gresini bike of Bastianini in third, paving the way for a two-horse race for victory. Bastianini started piling pressure on the Spanish GP winner in

The six-time world champion struggled with a lack of rear grip with the hotter temperatures experienced this afternoon at the French Grand Prix in qualifying and could only manage 10th on the grid.  Marquez says his feeling was strong in the cooler conditions on Saturday morning, but got worse over the rest of the day

The Italian set a new lap record on Saturday in France to claim his second-successive pole position and Ducati’s first at Le Mans.   Bagnaia led Ducati team-mate Jack Miller by 0.069 seconds in the end, but was not confident of being able to fight for pole during the preceding 30-minute FP4 session because he

Italian rider Bagnaia blitzed the Circuit Bugatti lap record in the pole shootout on Saturday, lapping the track in 1m30.450s to secure the fifth pole for a Ducati rider in seven qualifying sessions in 2022. Jack Miller backed up the performance of Bagnaia to grab second spot on the grid, setting a time that was

The Italian, twice a winner in the 2022 season on his year-old GP21 bike, lapped 0.202s faster than Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro in a soft rubber time attack late in the second free practice session. Bastianini had already seen a lap quicker than Espargaro’s benchmark scrubbed, having set the time under yellow flags caused by a

Friday’s running at Le Mans was held in bright and warm conditions across both sessions, with Gresini’s Enea Bastianini beating the outright lap record in FP2 to end the day fastest. But across both sessions there were 14 crashes at various points of the track. Le Mans is known for being the circuit with the

As was the case this morning, Suzuki’s Alex Rins set the early pace with a 1m32.192s at the start of FP2 as most of the field went out on the medium front and rear tyres. A few moments after Rins had gone top of the order, team-mate Joan Mir crashed on the way into Turn

Last week, Autosport reported Suzuki had informed its race team of its intentions to quit MotoGP at the end of the 2022 season, with the Japanese marque confirming on Thursday ahead of the French Grand Prix that it was now in discussions with Dorna about ending its contract early. The official reason given was due

The 2013 Moto2 world champion joined Honda last season on a two-year contract and was expected to remain in the seat for 2023. However, Suzuki’s shock decision to quit MotoGP at the end of 2022 – which was officially confirmed on Thursday ahead of the French Grand Prix, a week after Autosport’s first reports –

Last week, Autosport revealed Suzuki’s Japanese management had told its MotoGP race team at Jerez during the post-Spanish Grand Prix test that it was quitting the series at the end of the 2022 campaign. The news – which was officially confirmed by Suzuki on Thursday ahead of this weekend’s French GP at Le Mans, as

Quartararo came into grand prix racing billed as the next Marquez in 2015, but floundered in his early GP years in Moto3 and Moto2.   A breakout campaign in Moto2 in 2018 in which he won his first grand prix led him to a MotoGP ride with Petronas SRT and Yamaha for 2019, where he

The MotoGP World Championship live broadcasting rights are exclusively held by BT Sport, with the subscription service the home of MotoGP coverage in the UK since 2014, when it took over from the BBC. Prior to BT’s takeover, the BBC aired all qualifying and races live on BBC2 for the MotoGP class, while Moto2 and

Turkish superstar Razgatlioglu delivered Yamaha its first WSBK title in 2021 since 2009 when he beat Jonathan Rea in a thrilling season that went down to the final round in Indonesia last November. Razgatlioglu had been linked to a MotoGP switch for 2022 with Yamaha’s satellite outfit – which was formerly Petronas SRT, and is

The Italian has been Ducati’s leading light so far in 2022 on his GP21, having won twice in Qatar and America and leading the standings up until the Portimao round. He remains the top Ducati runner in the championship in third despite a difficult run to eighth in last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez,

Yamaha has come into the 2022 season with a bike that hasn’t evolved much from the 2021 M1 Quartararo won the championship with, particularly in terms of horsepower. Quartararo struggled to ninth in Qatar, was eighth in Argentina and seventh in Austin, while in the wet in Indonesia he was second, victorious in Portugal and

On Monday Autosport broke the bombshell news that Suzuki will quit MotoGP at the end of the season in a decision it only communicated to the race team on the same day during the post-race test at Jerez. An official announcement was expected on Tuesday, but did not materialise. Instead, Dorna Sports – MotoGP owners

The veteran Spaniard is now just seven points adrift of Fabio Quartararo in second in the standings after claiming third in last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix after getting the better of Jack Miller and Marc Marquez late in the race. It marked the first back-to-back podium of his MotoGP career after his third in Portugal,

Ducati has won twice in MotoGP so far in 2022, but with its 2021 bike courtesy of Gresini’s Enea Bastianini. The start to 2022 with its GP22 hasn’t been easy, but Bagnaia felt he made a breakthrough last time out in Portugal as he charged from last to eighth at Portimao. Smashing the lap record

Rins has been one of the stars of the early 2022 season, having scored back-to-back podiums in Argentina and America, and rising from 23rd to fourth in Portugal to move to the top of the standings. The Suzuki rider missed out on getting into Q2 again at Jerez and from the off struggled to replicate