Ducati pramac

Morbidelli lost his ride with Yamaha for next season earlier this year as he continued to struggle to recapture his past form on the factory M1. Initially linked to a switch to VR46 to ride a year-old Ducati next season, Marco Bezzecchi 's decision not to go to Pramac opened the door for 2020 championship runner-up Morbidelli to secure a factory-spec GP24. Ahead of this weekend's inaugural Indian Grand Prix, Pramac and Ducati confirmed Morbidelli's signing for 2024. This move will see all four VR46 Academy members on the current grid riding Ducati machinery. "I don't know if it will change for me and for us in terms of training," Bagnaia said of Morbidelli's appointment at Pramac Ducati. "I'm just happy to have Franky on the Ducati because I think he deserves this possibility. For sure the last years in Yamaha for him were not the best situation possible. "He arrived from an injury in 2021 and he arrived from a very old bike to a new bike, and it was not such a big … [Read more...] about Bagnaia: Morbidelli deserves factory Ducati MotoGP bike in 2024

Aside from the Q1 sessions prior to the pole shootout segment of qualifying, Valentino Rossi’s outfit has topped the timesheets across every outing at the Buddh International Circuit. Having topped final practice, Bezzecchi saw off a challenge from Pramac’s Martin to take his third pole of the season and first since the British GP. Reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia cast aside a tough Friday in which he felt he was “missing something” on braking to complete the front row for the factory Ducati squad. Having both made Q2 for the first time this season, the factory Honda duo of Joan Mir and Marc Marquez carried that form into qualifying to go fifth and sixth. Gresini’s Alex Marquez will provisionally line up 12th, but did not take part in Q2 having crashed at the end of Q1 and needing to be taken to the medical centre for checks on his right hand and ribs. The team has since confirmed he will go to hospital for further evaluation having suffered fractures to his … [Read more...] about MotoGP Indian GP: Bezzecchi leads Ducati 1-2-3-4 in qualifying

Bezzecchi was a class apart from the rest of the field at the Buddh International Circuit last weekend, recovering from a sluggish start to win the grand prix by over eight seconds - the biggest victory margin seen in MotoGP this year. The Italian lost positions to fellow Ducati riders Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia with a poor getaway from pole, but was back in the lead by the end of the opening lap as he clinched his third Sunday win of the season - and the first since the French GP back in May. The 24-year-old was also rapid in Saturday’s sprint after being hit by team-mate Luca Marini into Turn 1, charging his way through the pack to finish fifth. Recounting MotoGP’s maiden visit to India, Bezzecchi said two scrappy 70-minute practice sessions on Friday where he went off multiple times in Turn 1 were key to his dominant Sunday ride, as he was able to understand the braking limitations of his year-old GP22 Ducati. “I focused myself on braking because this … [Read more...] about Friday mistakes key to Bezzecchi’s Indian MotoGP Ducati domination

Since the sprint race at the Barcelona round earlier this month, Bagnaia has seen his championship lead whittled down from 66 points to just 13 ahead of this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi. After crashing out of second last weekend in India , Bagnaia admitted he had been suffering “big problems” with braking in recent races, allowing his Ducati colleagues Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi to close up to him in the title battle. FEATURE: 10 things we learned from the 2023 MotoGP Indian GP Asked whether he'd had a chance to study the issues together with the factory Ducati squad since the Buddh round, the championship leader said that watching back footage of recent races had revealed that the rear of his Desmosedici bike is “doing something strange”. “[The team and I] spoke yesterday, today and Monday night,” said Bagnaia in the pre-event press conference at Motegi on Thursday. “At 3am I was watching every video of the braking points of Buddh, Barcelona, … [Read more...] about Bagnaia ‘watching videos until 3am’ to understand Ducati MotoGP braking woes

Jorge Martin and Luca Marini traded the top spot in the timesheets for much of the extended 70-minute session at the Buddh International Circuit, each enjoying long stints at the front on their respective Ducatis. Pramac rider Martin was the first among the two to break the 1m50s barrier as he set a lap time of 1m49.358s in the first 10 minutes of practice, with his VR46 rival Marini's response falling 0.017s short of the Spaniard's benchmark. But Marini struck back next time around, improving by nearly two seconds to post a 1m47.880s flier as the laptimes continued to tumble at the 4.9km circuit. The duopoly of Marini and Martin was ended by Aleix Espargaro 15 minutes into the session, the Aprilia rider improving to a 1m47.611s on a track that is expected to suit the Noale outfit. Espargaro's time remained unbeaten around halfway into practice, when the next big rounds of improvements were seen as riders laid fresh rubber onto the Tarmac and improved the overall grip. … [Read more...] about MotoGP Indian GP: Bezzecchi tops FP1 from Marc Marquez

Friday’s second 70-minute session at the Buddh International Circuit was delayed by around 45 minutes due to some logistical issues affecting the beginning of the earlier Moto3 FP2. Once action got underway, Marini guided his year-old Ducati to a 1m44.782s to lead Pramac’s Jorge Martin by 0.008 seconds. In a first for the 2023 season, both factory Honda riders have secured a place in Q2 for Saturday’s qualifying, after Marc Marquez was fourth and team-mate Joan Mir 10th. Joining them will be Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, who cast aside his difficult FP1 to secure a place in Q2 for the first time since the Austrian GP weekend. The new Buddh layout continued to prove tricky for riders when second practice got underway, as KTM’s Jack Miller crashed at Turn 12 in the opening moments. The Australian struggled for pace all afternoon and was only 18th at the chequered flag. FP1 pacesetter Marco Bezzecchi on the second VR46 Ducati set the initial pace at 1m46.674s, before … [Read more...] about MotoGP Indian GP: Marini tops Friday, factory Honda pair make Q2

This weekend marks the first-ever MotoGP event in India, with the VR46 Ducati team topping both practice sessions on Friday with Marco Bezzecchi in FP1 and Luca Marini in FP2. The track was officially homologated on Thursday after the riders gave their approval, having come into the event carrying safety concerns about the recent circuit updates. And while some points of the track were touted as something of a concern by some riders, the overall impression was positive. However, Turn 1 proved to be a major challenge for the field, with several crashes taking place there and many instances of riders running off as they outbraked themselves. “It’s very difficult, Turn 1, to stop the bike,” Bezzecchi said. “Also because after you have Turn 2 immediately, so every time you run wide you go into Turn 2 and it’s f*****g difficult. “I made so many mistakes today to have a perfect reference and it was not easy. “I think it’s the easiest point to make mistakes, but to ride … [Read more...] about ‘Ice-like’ India Turn 1 catching MotoGP riders out on Friday

At the start of Saturday’s delayed 11-lap sprint at the Buddh International Circuit, five riders ended up tangling into Turn 1. VR46 Ducati duo Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini collided into Turn 1, with the latter suffering a broken collarbone while his polesitting team-mate dropped down the back before recovering to fifth. At the same time as this incident, LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl touched the back of Tech3’s Augusto Fernandez , which sent the former crashing into the sister Tech3 GasGas of Pol Espargaro . This is the third time in four races that there has been a pile-up into Turn 1 in a race, after similar wrecks at the start of the Catalan GP and the Austrian GP sprint. Marini has since been handed a long lap penalty for his collision with Bezzecchi, which he will serve at the next grand prix in which he is fit enough to participate in, having been ruled out of the Indian GP. However, this punishment is the standard one for causing such an incident, with … [Read more...] about “Strong penalties” only way to stop constant MotoGP Turn 1 pile-ups

After a delay of almost two hours due to rain, the very first MotoGP race on Indian soil got underway on Saturday with the shortened sprint contest. Run in dry conditions over 11 laps, Pramac Ducati rider Jorge Martin dominated the race by 1.389 seconds over championship leader Francesco Bagnaia . It has cut the factory Ducati rider's lead down to 33 points and marked Martin's fourth sprint success of the 2023 season. It also allowed Martin to pull further clear of VR46 Ducati rider Marco Bezzecchi in second in the standings, with this gap up to 36 points. Read Also: MotoGP Indian GP: Martin dominates chaotic sprint, Marquez third Bezzecchi was forced into a recovery ride having gotten a bad launch from pole position in the sprint. Team-mate Marini got a better launch from fourth and was able to draw alongside Bezzecchi into Turn 1, but outbraked himself and collided with his team-mate. Marini was taken out of the race on the spot while Bezzecchi … [Read more...] about Marini fractures collarbone in MotoGP sprint race crash with team-mate