MotoGP 2023
Round 12 – Misano
MotoGP Riders reflect on Misano MotoGP
Jorge Martin – P1
“Winning finally here at Ducati’s home was unbelievable. Was a tough one because I felt a lot of pressure from the Italian riders, today they were riding really smooth, I was hearing their engines, but I was calm as I thought my moment in the race would come. But as soon as I saw they had some weakness to make this difference. We were not pushing a lot on the first laps, I was trying to keep some margin on the physical side, to keep the body fresh, so when I had the chance to push I could do it, as soon as a I saw 0.3, then I started to push, full gas, like quali, risking a lot on the braking and a lot of front lock, but it was worth it as I was up to 2.3, but then I saw Marco was trying to catch me, so I start to push again to maintain the gap.”
Marco Bezzecchi – P2
“A very tough race, but I couldn’t give up. I would have liked to give my Team, my family, Vale and all the fans a victory, I tried, but Jorge (Martin) was very fast. I started well and I was then in the slip stream for a long time. I struggled on the front tire and the bike became very physical to handle. My hand started to hurt, but I didn’t lose the contact. I overtook Pecco (Bagnaia) and perhaps the adrenaline effect ended there. The pain became very tough at the end, which is why I will skip tomorrow’s tests. I want to arrive in India in the best possible conditions, it will be a busy weekend. One more reason to organize a big party tonight with all my friends here at the home GP! What an emotion!”
Francesco Bagnaia – P3
“It was a tough weekend, but we succeeded in achieving our goal, which was to finish in the top-5 in both races. One week ago, we were struggling, and it was difficult to consider a race weekend like this, so this was the maximum we could do. I tried to stay with Martin for as long as possible, but my leg, the fact that I was riding only with my arms and the front tyre pressure didn’t allow me to do it. When it started to be too difficult, I had to leave a bit of a gap to Bezzecchi, and I just tried to breathe a bit and have a bonus of performance in the last two or three laps so as not to give a chance to Pedrosa to overtake me. But I’m incredibly happy and proud of the work we did, and I only lost 14 points instead of a possible 37. Now we go to India for a race where physically I will be in better shape, and we will try and score more points for the championship.”
Dani Pedrosa – P4
“I had a few problems in the first laps because the rear tyre wasn’t heating up quick enough for me, especially on the left side and I had a few scares. I had to be patient and started to build the rhythm after three-four laps. After Brad crashed I saw the group ahead was not getting away from me, so I thought ‘let’s give everything and try to catch them’. When I was very close I had another ‘moment’ and nearly went flying. The gap grew and shrunk until Pecco was struggling on the last laps. I had another go because the bike was working really well. Overall, close to the podium again but I want to thank the team for all their work. I’m happy. It was great to be here and to have the opportunity to go for the podium. I don’t think I’ve been quite so pleased with a 4th place! Our work yesterday and today has helped us to learn a lot and to continue improving.”
Maverick Vinales – P5
“Being disappointed with a top-5 finish is a good sign. It means that we have raised the bar and we want to stay out front. I expected more this weekend – I won’t hide that – but we struggled more than expected when grip increased, especially in braking. It’s a question of balance – compromise in the setup – that we need to work on. Already in the test tomorrow, I definitely want to improve in braking in these conditions.”
Miguel Oliveira – P6
“I’m not over the moon but I’m happy. I’m happy with how the weekend finished. We started this week with a lot of difficulties to adapt my riding style to this track and to the bike. Finally, we could turn things around on Saturday though not transforming the Sprint race into a good result, but eventually today I could find a bit more feeling with the bike. The team helped me with a few more changes to make me feel more comfortable and I’m happy with that. I’m also very happy for the guys, they work hard to help me and to give them a good result is always the best.”
Marc Marquez – P7
“For me, this was the best race of the year alongside Le Mans. It’s my best Sunday of the season, I took the maximum that was available and passed our target. Our rhythm was very good until the soft rear option dropped a little bit at the end – but this is normal. In the end I was able to have some good battles with the Aprilia riders and Marini. The objective is to keep this going in the coming races. Before that we have an important test for the future, a first taste of what 2024 could hold. I’m looking forward to seeing how the bike will be with my riding style and then beginning to work with the engineers.”
Raul Fernandez – P8
“Honestly after the summer break, the feeling changed a lot. I changed my training and how I prepare for the race. Secondly, I also tried to change my mentality. But even more important now is, that I start to enjoy riding the bike again, rather than changing the bike or the mind. Now, I enjoy riding more and this is why it’s obvious to see, that I am back. However, 90% of the reason I could do this is because Aprilia and Razlan spoke to me every day, they believe in me and that gives me the confidence. If it wasn’t for that, it would have been hard for me to make this comeback. I’m happy to do the race that I did, I’m not on 100% yet, but we can improve. We know where to improve and we will do it tomorrow in the test and do as much steps as possible to try and do even better.”
Luca Marini – P9
“A difficult race: the start wasn’t perfect, I got stuck in group and I lost a lot of time. I really struggle to overtake, in acceleration I lose 2/3 tenths. Then with the consumption of the tire, I fought better and I managed to manage it, but at that point the game for the race was over. We need to work on the speed and QP. In the battle I wasn’t able to perform as I wanted and it’s a shame to have a day like this right in front of the many Italian fans on the track.”
Johann Zarco – P10
“Pretty happy with that last lap, from twelve to ten I got the top ten I wanted. Starting in sixteenth position this weekend wasn’t good and my speed wasn’t good enough to have high hopes – thing but I could see during the sprint race that the top ten was possible and I’m happy to have been able to grab these six points which are really important for me.
“Difficult track for me, it’s difficult to really say why, but I can’t get the speed like the others. The start of the race was hard for me, they had the speed, keeping the pace in a low 32 was difficult to maintain. At the end of the race, I almost had the right feeling to do low 32s again and catch up with this group, I wasn’t fighting like Marini was doing, he had a little more speed and he could try more things but , at least I was able to be patient and enjoy some good overtaking at the end, so I’m happy. I will have good energy for the many overseas races and hope to get on the podium there.
“For tomorrow, I haven’t spoken with the team, it would be logical that I don’t have anything to test but it will be good to work on my pace, to get a little feeling and perhaps to obtain a lot of information that we need and then save a little energy. “
Alex Marquez – P11
“I’m angry, because we surely had some more to give, but qualifying is more crucial than ever nowadays in a GP. We started well and had the pace, while staying behind Oliveira and Marc I knew I could have been faster, but then I began experiencing some issues with the front-end of the bike and from then on it was more about survival. We need to keep our heads down and the results will come.”
Aleix Espargaro – P12
“The result is obviously not good, but I gambled away the race at the start. I lost positions and found myself in a group where we all had a very similar pace. Struggling to overtake, despite laptimes that were actually good, I was unable to do better than I did. We knew that this would be a complicated track for us, both for the characteristics of the RS-GP and because I don’t particularly like the layout. From here on out, I have good feelings, plus we’ll be able to use the test tomorrow to try some solutions to improve in these conditions.”
Fabio Quartararo – P13
“It was more of the same, but I feel like I was riding a little bit better today. I was fast with our bike. We have been able to maintain a good pace, but when we are behind someone, it‘s difficult to overtake. Four laps to the end, I decided to ’cut‘ on the straight: I created a gap of 1s to the riders ahead to see what our pace is like. Basically, in one lap I was already on the back of them again, so it was great to see that we are fast with our bike. But we need to make some big steps in tomorrow‘s test and leave with a better feeling.”
Brad Binder – P14
“To be honest in both races we have been fast. Yesterday I had an issue at the start and was able to catch-up, which was really good. Then today I improved and was feeling great but it looks like I had a little bit more [lean] angle in Turn 14 and it was enough to lose the front. After that it was a very long 20 laps with some of the aero gone. There are positives to take from today but sorry to the guys in my team for losing a good opportunity.”
Franco Morbidelli – P15
“It was a very tough race. I didn‘t have the performance I was expecting from the tyres. Moreover, the front pressure got very high, and I lost some performance. But, anyway, we couldn‘t do the maximum. I think the maximum would have been to be with the group in front of me, but I was starting from a bit too far behind, and I lost a bit too much time overtaking, so I lost contact. I rode a lonely race. I just met Brad at the end. But I‘m happy because I gave my 100%.”
Augusto Fernandez – P16
“A hard one. My start was good but then the first lap was a disaster; everything I did was wrong and I lost a lot of positions. Also, with the full tank I couldn’t overtake and get out of that situation. After some time I found some fresh air and then Brad [Binder] crashed and he was with me. He had a different pace. I tried everything to stay with him and I did it. My lap-times were good. Overall, it’s a bad result and a shame not to get points but there are a few positives that we can analyse from being on that limit. Let’s see what we can find out tomorrow at the test.”
Fabio Di Giannantonio – P17
“It was one of the toughest races of my career. We were starting too far back, but I had the pace and managed to recover some positions before a coming together happened in front of me, in which I almost ended up hitting Pirro. The left shoulder was hurting so much and even contemplated retiring. Then I grit my teeth and continued. Today’s positives were the race pace and the experience made.”
Stefan Bradl – P18
“The work that we have done this weekend has been important and productive. We have had a few highlights such as qualifying but there is still a lot of work to do. It’s nice to get a bit of extra input and compare ourselves to the rest of the MotoGP field. Tomorrow we are again ‘in our world’ for the Test, which I think a lot of people are going to be watching very closely. A weekend with some positives, now we aim to do the same in the test.”
Takaaki Nakagami – P19
“We need to understand what’s happened because I didn’t have problems with my arms before, and I believe it’s because of some of the changes we’ve made on the bike. Tomorrow’s test will be important to try different items to be ready for the next races”.
Jack Miller – DNF
“That was not the most ideal day, you might say. A bit shitty to end the race like that, but there’s not much we could have done. You all saw how my race ended, but maybe not how it came about. I made a little bit of a mistake on the back straight – kind of bugger-all, just ran out a little bit through Turn 11 on the green (paint) – and put myself in the range of (Yamaha’s Franco) Morbidelli, and I reckon he tried to pass six times – and every time going off the end of the track. On the last go he did it at Turn 4 and went off the end, and as I was turning the corner (Ducati’s Michele) Pirro centre-punched me in the middle of my ribs, and that was it. Not much more to say, really. Wrong place, wrong time … unlucky.
“It just wasn’t the weekend we wanted. The pace wasn’t bad and it wasn’t like things were terrible, but we were just missing a little bit – from myself and from the bike. Whatever it was, we don’t know – we’re trying to discover what it was. I was really fast in the second and fourth sectors of the lap, but sectors one and three … in qualifying I was nearly last in both sectors. The fast and flowing corners where you have to let the brakes off and go, I just didn’t have the confidence in it. I got away to a decent start in the Sprint race, but being 18th on the grid and with the chaos into Turn 1 off the start, I couldn’t brake hard enough to unlock the front ride-height device, and I did the first sector with that down and lost a heap of positions before it finally unlocked at Turn 4.
“On Sunday we made some final little tweaks on the bike and it wasn’t feeling too bad, we made a better start than Saturday, and I settled into my pace before it all ended too quickly. I was missing confidence, especially Turn 11, to let the bike flow through there – that’s such a crucial corner here but I had no confidence, I needed to trust the front of the bike more to carry the speed. The flowing corners in the first sector was the same thing.
“We’re not giving up, we’ll keep plugging away and I’ll try to improve. I need to get better, plain and simple. The test on Monday comes at a good time – maybe a few weeks earlier would have been better I reckon – but at least it gives me a chance to try to work a few things out and get ourselves ready for the back-half of this year.
“I’m sure there’s some items that aren’t for this year in the test, but I said to the team ‘put them on in the afternoon, because I need the morning session to understand this bike and what I need to do on it to make it better’. Just really ride the bike and understand what I want from it. So it’s an important day for us.
“While I’m here, you would have seen that we lost Mike Trimby over the weekend, he’s been a hugely important figure in the paddock with his role with IRTA and looking after us riders and teams, so I wanted to say a few words about him.
“I’ve been here in world championship only 12 years, and Mike was someone who was crucial to me still being here in this paddock today. Without the support of Mike and IRTA in my early years, both financially and in terms of guidance with teams and stuff like that … he’s been an amazing person. After I won in Jerez last year, he was one of the first people I went to see. My thoughts are with his wife Irene, they were kind of like surrogate family for me when my parents went home to Australia in those early days for me in Europe. He was a great man who did some amazing things for this sport, and we were all devastated to hear the news on Friday.
“So … I have the test here tomorrow, and then it’s go-time to get home in time for the baby this week! I’m so excited to be able to get home for a few days with Ruby and my new family before we head off to India for the first race there. I should be home the day before, so it’s definitely going to be cutting it a bit fine…”
Michele Pirro – DNF
“After yesterday’s disappointment, I was hoping to do more today. My feeling with the bike was better, and I felt I could lap at a similar pace to the front guys. Unfortunately, Miller went wide after colliding with Morbidelli, and when he came back into the line, I could do nothing to avoid him. I’m sorry, it was a race incident. Now, I hope to recover in time for India, where I will replace Enea”.
Pol Espargaro – DNF
“So sorry to the guys. It has been a mess this weekend with the crashes and I struggled with the front here. I was doing OK in the race; it was alright but not that great. I was going for points but then I tucked the bike and I don’t really know why. After recovering a lot of positions I’m very disappointed not to score anything today.”
Joan Mir – DNF
“I wasn’t able to make a great start to the race honestly, but I was able to overtake more riders than yesterday so there was an improvement in that area. When Pirro and Miller crashed, I had to avoid them and lost some more time here as well as the positions I had gained. Then the next lap, I crashed in that same corner. Again, we are focusing on the positive points and the fact that we made some steps. Tomorrow we switch into our 2024 mindset and start working on the future.”
Team Managers
Pablo Nieto – VR46 Team Manager
“I’m happy, an almost perfect weekend for the Team and all our partners who spent three days with us on the track. Marco had a great race, especially if we consider the injury. He achieved his goal in front of his fans and I believe this will give him an extra boost for the races to come. The working group gave its all, I’m satisfied, but we still have a lot to do. Too bad for Luca, a qualifying that jeopardised the GP. The Top10 always has great value, but it certainly deserves more.”
Francesco Guidotti – Red Bull KTM Team Manager
“Two crashes was a little bit too much for us today. Jack was involved in a multi-rider crash and he didn’t deserve it but that can happen. We need to work to help him and that will be the plan tomorrow. Brad was on a mission and had a better start compared to yesterday. He was trying to manage the situation and suddenly went down. Even without the side pod his pace to come back was pretty good and he could salvage some points. We didn’t have much luck. We are confident, and we know our potential and it wasn’t what we showed today. We won’t give up and seeing Dani in this shape gives us a boost for the future with the new parts. We have a high level of curiosity for what our factory riders will say tomorrow.”
Razlan Razali – CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team Principal
“That was a very satisfying result for both our riders with Miguel sixth and Raul his best ever MotoGP position with eighth. It’s not an easy weekend especially for Miguel, coming back from Barcelona, he’s not always comfortable with the bike. But, the strength of Miguel is what he is, he’s able to pull himself together and be where he is, sixth position is a very good result for us. For Raul, we always say we believe in him, we know that he can deliver and step by step he got there. And what he did today was amazing, it’s always hard to overtake Marc (Marquez) but with eighth position is an amazing result for him. So, now we finish the European round before we return to Valencia at the end of the season, we will head to India for the first time where in some ways it will be equalised for everyone. No one has been there, we don’t know what the track conditions are like and we have no data, whoever can adapt the fastest will have an advantage. So we look forward to be there in the next one week and we’ll see you in India.”
Wilco Zeelenberg – CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team Manager
“We finished sixth and eighth in Misano and we’re very happy with these results. Of course, having a very strong results with both boys always means a lot. We jumped up two positions for the team, which is very important. Raul had a good pace all weekend and he did a very strong race which we are very proud of. He made a good step; his previous best was P10 and today’s result in P8 is fantastic. Meanwhile, Miguel struggled a little bit this week compared to Barcelona, but he had a great start and a good pace, and earning P6 is a very good result for him. This is something that we should not forget at the moment; if you have a good start and a good pace everything is possible. It is positive vibes throughout the team today, so we continue with the test tomorrow as we have many things to do. And once we finished this, we will start our seven-header overseas and later be back in Europe for Valencia.”
Massimo Mergalli – Monster Yamaha Team Director
“It was a difficult weekend. Our pace was not so bad, but both Fabio and Franky were not able to overtake and defend their position the way they wanted to. They got some championship points today, but we are not where we want to be in the race results and in the overall standings, so tomorrow‘s test will be very important for us. We brought some new things to try, and we will use today‘s data as a comparison. The whole team is motivated to roll up their sleeves and find improvements that we will hopefully benefit from this season as well as in 2024.”
Nicolas Goyon – GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 Team Manager
“It almost goes without saying that this was the most difficult weekend of the season. We had some hopes on Augusto’s side. He had a good warm-up this morning and it seemed the direction we found was good but he struggled to find the decent pace in the hot conditions and lost some time before he could make it back. We need to improve these beginnings of the race or qualifying if we want to achieve good results. Pol had too many crashes this weekend. It’s tough for his confidence and the race didn’t work out. We have an important test tomorrow so the riders can work on their weak points before we pack for the flyaway races.”
Piero Taramasso – Michelin
“The range of tyres that we brought to Misano were perfectly adapted to the conditions. The new absolute circuit lap record set by Jorge Martin, as well as the race lap record set by Pecco Bagnaia, illustrate the exceptional performance of the MICHELIN Power Slick tyres. The new race duration record, ten seconds shorter than in 2022, testifies to their great consistency, and shows that our range of MotoGP tyres is still perfectly adapted to the constraints imposed by the motorcycles, and meets the needs of the riders. We are nevertheless working on developments to the range, and will have the opportunity to test new rubber compounds on Monday for the 2024 season and beyond.”
MotoGP Race Results
Pos | Rider | Bike | Time/Gap |
1 | Jorge MARTIN | DUCATI | 41m33.421 |
2 | Marco BEZZECCHI | DUCATI | +1.350 |
3 | Francesco BAGNAIA | DUCATI | +3.812 |
4 | Dani PEDROSA | KTM | +4.481 |
5 | Maverick VIÑALES | APRILIA | +10.510 |
6 | Miguel OLIVEIRA | APRILIA | +12.274 |
7 | Marc MARQUEZ | HONDA | +13.576 |
8 | Raul FERNANDEZ | APRILIA | +14.091 |
9 | Luca MARINI | DUCATI | +14.982 |
10 | Johann ZARCO | DUCATI | +15.484 |
11 | Alex MARQUEZ | DUCATI | +15.702 |
12 | Aleix ESPARGARO | APRILIA | +15.878 |
13 | Fabio QUARTARARO | YAMAHA | +15.898 |
14 | Brad BINDER | KTM | +23.778 |
15 | Franco MORBIDELLI | YAMAHA | +24.579 |
16 | Augusto FERNANDEZ | KTM | +31.230 |
17 | Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO | DUCATI | +32.537 |
18 | Stefan BRADL | HONDA | +35.330 |
19 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | HONDA | +43.601 |
Not Classified | |||
DNF | Pol ESPARGARO | KTM | 12 laps |
DNF | Joan MIR | HONDA | 17 laps |
DNF | Jack MILLER | KTM | 18 laps |
DNF | Michele PIRRO | DUCATI | 18 laps |
MotoGP Max Speeds Across Race Weekend
Pos | Rider | Bike | Speed |
1 | Marco BEZZECCHI | DUCATI | 305.9 |
2 | Jorge MARTIN | DUCATI | 305.0 |
3 | Dani PEDROSA | KTM | 304.2 |
4 | Miguel OLIVEIRA | APRILIA | 302.5 |
5 | Alex MARQUEZ | DUCATI | 302.5 |
6 | Johann ZARCO | DUCATI | 302.5 |
7 | Luca MARINI | DUCATI | 301.6 |
8 | Maverick VIÑALES | APRILIA | 301.6 |
9 | Brad BINDER | KTM | 301.6 |
10 | Aleix ESPARGARO | APRILIA | 300.8 |
11 | Pol ESPARGARO | KTM | 300.8 |
12 | Marc MARQUEZ | HONDA | 300.8 |
13 | Francesco BAGNAIA | DUCATI | 300.8 |
14 | Raul FERNANDEZ | APRILIA | 300.0 |
15 | Jack MILLER | KTM | 300.0 |
16 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | HONDA | 299.1 |
17 | Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO | DUCATI | 299.1 |
18 | Joan MIR | HONDA | 298.3 |
19 | Michele PIRRO | DUCATI | 298.3 |
20 | Fabio QUARTARARO | YAMAHA | 298.3 |
21 | Stefan BRADL | HONDA | 298.3 |
22 | Franco MORBIDELLI | YAMAHA | 297.5 |
23 | Augusto FERNANDEZ | KTM | 296.7 |
24 | Takumi TAKAHASHI | HONDA | 291.8 |
MotoGP Championship Points
Pos | Rider | Points |
1 | Bagnaia | 283 |
2 | Martin | 247 |
3 | Bezzecchi | 218 |
4 | Binder | 173 |
5 | Espargaro | 160 |
6 | Zarco | 147 |
7 | Marini | 135 |
8 | Viñales | 128 |
9 | Marquez | 108 |
10 | Miller | 104 |
11 | Quartararo | 85 |
12 | Morbidelli | 68 |
13 | Oliveira | 65 |
14 | Fernandez | 58 |
15 | Rins | 47 |
16 | Di Giannantonio | 43 |
17 | Nakagami | 35 |
18 | Pedrosa | 32 |
19 | Marquez | 31 |
20 | Bastianini | 25 |
21 | Fernandez | 22 |
22 | Savadori | 9 |
23 | Folger | 9 |
24 | Espargaro | 8 |
25 | 25 Pirro | 5 |
26 | 26 Mir | 5 |
27 | 27 Petrucci | 5 |
28 | 28 Bradl | 5 |
29 | 29 Lecuona | 0 |
2023 MotoGP Calendar
Rnd | Date | Location |
14 | Sep-24 | India, Buddh (Subject to homologation) |
15 | Oct-01 | Japan, Motegi |
16 | Oct-15 | Indonesia, Mandalika |
17 | Oct-22 | Australia, Phillip Island |
18 | Oct-29 | Thailand, Chang |
19 | Nov-12 | Malaysia, Sepang |
20 | Nov-19 | Qatar, Lusail |
21 | Nov-26 | Valenciana, Valencia |