MotoGP adapts its schedules to Sprint races

The official motogp.com website has revealed the new race weekend format for three main categories.

Published on 23/03/2023 à 11:38

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MotoGP adapts its schedules to Sprint races

Welcome to the Algarve to start the 2023 season © Michelin

New season rhymes with revolution for the MotoGP in 2023 with two new destinations and the appearance of Sprint races on Saturdays.

The MotoGP World Championship begins this weekend in Portugal at the Algarve Autodrome before writing a new page in its rich history at the beginning of July by visiting for the first time in Kazakhstan for the ninth round of the 2023 championship. A little less than 3 months later, the championship will set down in India on the Buddh International Circuit for the 14th round of the 2023 tour. The Indian Grand Prix will launch the great Pacific tour on September 24.

With the appearance of Sprint races, 42 starts will be on the program for the 2023 MotoGP season! These short races will be organized every day before a Grand Prix over all the rounds of the season and will allow the first 9 drivers to finish to pocket half the points of a classic race (12, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 points).

In order to bring more clarity to the days, the MotoGP sessions will always be the last in each block, further standardizing a progressive format, with Moto3 followed by Moto2, then MotoGP.

42 MotoGP races in 2023 © Red Bull

This innovation leads to an overhaul of race weekends including MotoGP.com communicated the details:

Friday

Friday remains dedicated to tests which should no longer be called “free” because they have a role in access to qualifying. The first session starts at 10:45 a.m. and lasts 45 minutes while the second, at 15:00 p.m., is extended to one hour. The combined times of these two sessions now determine the names of the participants in Q1 and Q2.

Saturday

Saturday therefore becomes a racing day. MotoGP has a 30-minute free practice session, similar to the FP4 of yesteryear, before starting Q1 at 10:50 a.m., followed by Q2 at around 11:15 a.m. Then, it’s time for the Sprint race! After a grid setting reduced to 15 minutes, the start is given at 15:00 p.m. every Saturday for 50% of the distance of the Sunday race. At the end of the race, each circuit will determine the location of the podium in the immediate vicinity of the spectators.

Sunday

The Moto2™ and Moto3™ categories no longer have a warm-up, which gives MotoGP the luxury of opening and closing the final day of running of a Grand Prix, entering the track at 9:45 a.m. for 10 minutes of warm-up. -up.

Sunday races start at 11:00 a.m. for Moto3 and 12:15 p.m. for Moto2. In MotoGP, the start is scheduled for 14:00 p.m. and is followed by the traditional podium at 15:00 p.m.