Full Qualifying results and grid line-up for the Saturday Sprint and main Sunday race at the Japanese MotoGP at Motegi, round 14 of 20 in the 2023 world championship.
Marc Marquez clocked up his 20th fall of the season in the closing stages of Friday practice at the Japanese MotoGP, sending him into Saturday’s Qualifying 1.
Marc Marquez is keeping his cards close to his chest, but former MotoGP title rival and Repsol Honda team-mate Jorge Lorenzo thinks a Gresini Ducati move is ‘done’.
Marc Marquez has played down the significance of comments by senior Ducati management suggesting the six-time MotoGP champion is indeed in talks for a shock switch to Gresini next season.
Ducati sporting director Paolo Ciabatti believes Gresini has an ‘opportunity’ to sign Marc Marquez for the 2024 MotoGP season and ‘are waiting for his decision’.
Marc Marquez may have finished 13 seconds behind Misano MotoGP winner Jorge Martin, but he was still 21.7s faster than the next-best Honda for his best Sunday result of the year.
Marc Marquez rode a tactical MotoGP Sprint race at Misano, finishing in tenth place after avoiding battles and hooking a tow from faster riders to ‘escape’.
Marc Marquez secures direct access to Qualifying 2 at Misano after hitching a tow behind former team-mate Dani Pedrosa during Friday practice for the San Marino MotoGP.
Another day and another chance for Marc Marquez to extinguish the speculation over his MotoGP future passes without clarification, further fuelling rumours of a shock switch to Gresini Ducati.
Marc Marquez was the top Honda rider on Friday in Catalunya, but with all four RCVs at the bottom of the timesheets the factory’s MotoGP woes were exposed for all to see.
With his first Sunday MotoGP points of the year finally in the bag, Marc Marquez will be hoping his ‘calm approach’ now brings his first home Catalunya points since 2019 this weekend.
While Takaaki Nakagami and Joan Mir committed fully to the new Honda fairing, Marc Marquez opted to ‘sacrifice a bit’ with back-to-back tests on Friday at the Austrian MotoGP.