MotoGP 2023 Round 16, Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix

Australia: Schedule changes made for a busy Saturday in Australia as the Repsol Honda Team contested practice, Qualifying and the Grand Prix all in the same day.

For the first time since 2015, a Grand Prix was held on Saturday as weather warnings forced a change of schedule on safety grounds. This made for an intense day as the MotoGP field completed practice, two Qualifying sessions and had the full length Australian Grand Prix all moved to the same day.

As the weather continued to cool from Friday, the Repsol Honda Team headed out on track for Q1 alongside a number of big names for an intense 15-minute session. Marc Marquez would time his run perfectly to enter the top two on his final flying lap, advancing through to Q2. Ultimately taking seventh on the grid with a best time of 1’28.012, the eight-time World Champion ended 0.766s off pole.

From the head of the third row, Marquez lost a little ground in the run down to Turn 1 but quickly rallied and recovered to challenge the top five. A spirited start to the race had the #93 as an early podium contender but he quickly had to switch into a more defensive posture as the competition around him increased. Gambling with the soft, the latter half of the race became about survival, and he crossed the line in 15th to collect a solitary point.

Joan Mir started the full-length Grand Prix from 16th on the grid after taking some steps forward with the setting of his Repsol Honda Team RC213V in the morning. From here, Mir was able launch well and work his way forward and into the points. Riding comfortably and able to gain on those ahead of him in almost every corner, the Repsol Honda Team rider found himself in a multi-rider battle. Unfortunately, the fighting would get too heated and contact with Marini at Turn 4 in the middle of the race would result in Mir retiring soon after.

A further schedule change has seen the Sprint Race brought forward to 13:00 Local Time on Sunday, set to be run over 13 laps.

Marc Marquez (15^th)

“Last year the soft tyre brought us the podium, this year the gamble didn’t pay off. I was hoping for a slower race, but straight away Martin was pushing hard and I knew it would be a very fast race. At the start I really enjoyed the ten or so laps with Bagnaia and Zarco as we were fighting a lot. Then I needed to change my tactic and just focus on bringing the bike home as I was suffering more with tyre life. Now we wait and see what will happen with the situation tomorrow.”

Joan Mir (DNF)

“I disappointed with today, it is another hard one. I was just trying to make my race, not hurting anyone, trying to take care of the tyres because you saw what happened at the end of the race. We were working in the correct way according to the data. Then Marini tried to overtake me and hit me, and I fell after losing the front. Being in the back, the situation is more complicated as the riders are fighting a lot – I was a victim of it today. But this is racing. Let’s see tomorrow.”

Australian Grand Prix

Pos.	Rider	Num	Nation	Points	Team	Constructor	Time/Gap
1	ZARCO Johann	5	FRA	25	Pramac Racing	Ducati	40’39.446
2	BAGNAIA Francesco	1	ITA	20	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati	0.201
3	DI GIANNANTONIO Fabio	49	ITA	16	Team Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	0.477
4	BINDER Brad	33	RSA	13	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	0.816
5	MARTIN Jorge	89	SPA	11	Pramac Racing	Ducati	1.008
6	BEZZECCHI Marco	72	ITA	10	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	8.827
7	MILLER Jack	43	AUS	9	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	9.283
8	ESPARGARO Aleix	41	SPA	8	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	9.387
9	MARQUEZ Alex	73	SPA	7	Team Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	9.696
10	BASTIANINI Enea	23	ITA	6	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati	12.523
11	VINALES Maverick	12	SPA	5	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	13.992
12	MARINI Luca	10	ITA	4	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	17.078
13	OLIVEIRA Miguel	88	POR	3	RNF MotoGP Team	Aprilia	19.443
14	QUARTARARO Fabio	20	FRA	2	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	20.949
15	MARQUEZ Marc	93	SPA	1	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	21.118
16	FERNANDEZ Raul	25	SPA	0	RNF MotoGP Team	Aprilia	32.538
17	MORBIDELLI Franco	21	ITA	0	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	37.663
18	ESPARGARO Pol	44	SPA	0	Tech3 GASGAS Factory Racing	KTM	37.668
19	NAKAGAMI Takaaki	30	JPN	0	LCR Honda	Honda	37.758
20	FERNANDEZ Augusto	37	SPA	DNF	Tech3 GASGAS Factory Racing	KTM	DNF
21	MIR Joan	36	SPA	DNF	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	DNF

Rider standings

Pos.	Rider	Num	Nation	Points	Team	Constructor
1	BAGNAIA Francesco	1	ITA	366	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati
2	MARTIN Jorge	89	SPA	339	Pramac Racing	Ducati
3	BEZZECCHI Marco	72	ITA	293	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati
4	BINDER Brad	33	RSA	224	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM
5	ZARCO Johann	5	FRA	187	Pramac Racing	Ducati
6	ESPARGARO Aleix	41	SPA	185	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia
7	VINALES Maverick	12	SPA	170	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia
8	MARINI Luca	10	ITA	148	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati
9	MILLER Jack	43	AUS	144	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM
10	QUARTARARO Fabio	20	FRA	134	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha
11	MARQUEZ Alex	73	SPA	115	Team Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati
12	DI GIANNANTONIO Fabio	49	ITA	86	Team Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati
13	MORBIDELLI Franco	21	ITA	79	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha
14	OLIVEIRA Miguel	88	POR	76	RNF MotoGP Team	Aprilia
15	FERNANDEZ Augusto	37	SPA	67	Tech3 GASGAS Factory Racing	KTM
16	MARQUEZ Marc	93	SPA	65	Repsol Honda Team	Honda
17	RINS Alex	42	SPA	54	LCR Honda	Honda
18	NAKAGAMI Takaaki	30	JPN	50	LCR Honda	Honda
19	BASTIANINI Enea	23	ITA	42	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati
20	FERNANDEZ Raul	25	SPA	39	RNF MotoGP Team	Aprilia
21	PEDROSA Dani	26	SPA	32	KTM Test Team	KTM
22	MIR Joan	36	SPA	20	Repsol Honda Team	Honda
23	ESPARGARO Pol	44	SPA	12	Tech3 GASGAS Factory Racing	KTM
24	SAVADORI Lorenzo	32	ITA	9	RNF MotoGP Team	Aprilia
25	FOLGER Jonas	94	GER	9	Tech3 GASGAS Factory Racing	KTM
26	BRADL Stefan	6	GER	8	Repsol Honda Team	Honda
27	PETRUCCI Danilo	9	ITA	5	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati
28	PIRRO Michele	51	ITA	5	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati
29	CRUTCHLOW Cal	35	GBR	3	Yamaha Test Team	Yamaha
30	LECUONA Iker	27	SPA	0	Repsol Honda Team	Honda