Motegi, Japan

2023 Motegi MotoGP Free Practice 2 Result: Bezzecchi Leads Bagnaia 

By Zara Daniela | Sat, 30/09/2023 - 01:49

After Brad Binder spent Friday in the limelight, Marco Bezzecchi returned to the front on Saturday morning, the Italian leading the way by three tenths of a second in the final practice session. However, Pecco Bagnaia kept a close eye on his rival from second position, with Jack Miller coming to the fore in third. Fabio Di Giannantonio and Binder completed the top five ahead of Marc Marquez, while Jorge Martin in seventh position was half a second slower than his title rivals. 

2023 Motegi Moto2 Practice 3 Result: Chantra Stays In The Spotlight  

By Zara Daniela | Sat, 30/09/2023 - 01:10

After a quick start on Friday, Somkiat Chantra allowed some other people to share the spotlight on Saturday morning, before swooping back in at the chequered flag to post the first 1:49 time of the weekend and nearly threaten the lap record. Teammate Ai Ogura was one of those people, briefly holding top spot in the final five minutes, before taking a tumble at turn two and settling for second. Pedro Acosta was quick to claim the lead at the start of P3, before dropping to third, four tenths behind the leader.

2023 Motegi Moto3 Practice 3 Result: Masia Picks Up A Record 

By Zara Daniela | Sat, 30/09/2023 - 00:24

After Jaume Masia claimed the top of the timesheets on Friday, picking up where he left off a week ago, improvements were few and far between in P3, at least until the last six minutes of the session, when Dani Holgado picked up top spot by a quarter of a second. The world championship leader went on to improve his advantage the very next lap, while rivals were still picking up their pace, but even a four-tenth advantage was far from unbeatable and Masia reclaimed prime position in the final minute, finally improving the old time lap record that stood from 2016.

MotoGP MotoGP Friday Round Up: Lap Records Fall, Bagnaia Fixes His Braking, And A Revolution At HRC

By David Emmett | Fri, 29/09/2023 - 21:29

When Michelin entered MotoGP, their official objectives were to use premier class motorcycle racing as a laboratory to be able to do R&D at the very highest level, to learn lessons about designing and building tires that simply can't be learned on the street.

Unofficially, of course, they also wanted to show up Bridgestone – or as Michelin refer to them, the previous supplier – by smashing the lap records set on the Japanese rubber as quickly as possible. They did that pretty quickly, and within a couple of years most of the lap records were gone.

But a few hung on stubbornly, year after year. The outright (Marc Marquez, 2014) and race lap (Valentino Rossi, 2015) records at Argentina are still from the Bridgestone era, as is the record at Phillip Island, which is in the hands of Marc Marquez from the bizarre 2013 race where the brand new track surface was generating so much heat in the tires that the race was shortened and compulsory pit stops to swap bikes were introduced.

2023 Motegi MotoGP PR Results: Binder Smashes Lap Record, Bagnaia On His Heels

By David Emmett | Fri, 29/09/2023 - 07:06

Brad Binder has topped the timesheets in MotoGP's only session counting toward practice, the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider smashing Jorge Lorenzo's long-standing record from 2015, and one of the few records still remaining from the Bridgestone era.

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