MotoGP Catalunya results, Grand Prix - Red flag and historical domination

The 11th round of the 2023 MotoGP World Championship takes the series to Barcelona for the Catalan Grand Prix, with Francesco Bagnaia holding a 62-point championship lead.  This page will be updated with MotoGP Catalunya results throughout the weekend.

Overview

Grand Prix - Espargaro completes Catalan double as Vinales confirms Aprilia 1-2

Sprint - Espargaro cruises to home Sprint win as Bagnaia holds of Vinales for second

Qualifying - Bagnaia denies Espargaro with new lap record to take pole position

Practice - Espargaro, Aprilia complete Friday sweep with Vinales second

FP1 - Espargaro starts out on top, but uses a soft tyre to do so

Grand Prix

As in Barcelona last year, the 2023 MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix was characterised by a first corner crash, which caused an almost immediate red flag. The restarted race was dominated by Aprilia, and particularly Aleix Espargaro, who took the lead in the closing stages to take his second Grand Prix win in three races, and who completed his first MotoGP ‘double’.

As soon as the race was started, it was over with a red flag. A multiple-rider crash at turn one was followed by a high-side for Francesco Bagnaia on the exit of turn two. Bagnaia was run over by Brad Binder - who had nowhere to go - but all riders at turn one - Enea Bastianini (who caused the incident), Johann Zarco, Alex Marquez, Marco Bezzecchi, and Fabio Di Giannantonio - were okay. 

Brad Binder also went down in the incident with Bagnaia. The impact with Bagnaia’s legs had caused a fluid leak on Binder’s bike, which he himself fell on. It also required, of course, a significant clean-up operation, which could only really begin once Bagnaia had been removed from the scene, and which became the most significant factor in the delay in getting the race restarted. 

The red flag meant that all those down in turn one could get back to the pits and back out into the race for the restart, but the same could not be said for Bagnaia, who had to be taken to the medical centre by ambulance.

The pit lane re-opened at 14:21 local time, 20 minutes after the original race start. Since not even one lap had been completed, all riders started from their original grid positions, with the exception of the two factory Ducati riders - Bagnaia and Bastianini (who had also been given a long lap penalty for his involvement in the turn one crash) - who were both in the medical centre, and later transferred to the Hospital General de Catalunya, Bastianini with pain in his hand, according to Izaskun Ruiz of Spanish broadcaster DAZN.

When the restart eventually got underway, Jorge Martin made the holeshot, but he immediately lost the lead at turn four to Maverick Vinales.

The #12 Aprilia led the first lap of what was now a 23-lap Catalan Grand Prix, ahead of Martin and Aleix Espargaro, while Miguel Oliveira was a third Aprilia in the top four in fourth place.

Vinales was pulling away by lap three, so Espargaro acted. He passed Martin for second place at turn 10 and, at turn four on the next lap, fourth place became third for Miguel Oliveira.

By lap six, all three Aprilias were pulling away from Martin, but Oliveira began to drop back from the two factory bikes by lap eight.

The battle for the win was between Vinales and Espargaro, while Oliveira had to face Martin and his Pramac teammate, Johann Zarco, for the final podium position.

By lap 10, Oliveira’s fight for the podium was lost, as Martin went through. A lonely race followed for Martin, but the 16 points were important. With Bagnaia out for an unknown period, he was able to reduce his deficit to the Italian to 50 points, while other potential contenders Brad Binder and Marco Bezzecchi also struggled. Binder retired with bike issues, soscored nothing, and Bezzecchi scored only minor points in 11th place having been forced to choose the soft-compound front tyre for the restart having run out of the preferred medium-compound by choosing it for the first start.

Back at the front, and a decisive error by Aleix Espargaro on lap 12 cost him one second. The extreme tyre wear at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya meant that Espargaro could not afford to chew the one-second margin back up immediately. Instead, it took a number of laps of erosion of the gap. By lap 18, though, Espargaro was back with his teammate.

Unfortunately for Vinales, he had no grip to fight with compared to Espargaro, who passed at turn one on lap 20. Vinales went wide, and had to cut turn two, and Espargaro was clear.

The final three laps were straightforward for both Espargaro and Vinales, because of the pace differential between the two. Vinales could do nothing to respond to his teammate, who cruised to his second GP win of the season, and who completed a double victory for the weekend after his Sprint win yesterday.

The aforementioned Martin completed the podium, ahead of his teammate, Johann Zarco, who beat Miguel Oliveira (5th) in the battle for fourth.

Alex Marquez completed the top six, ahead of Fabio Quartararo (7th, top Yamaha, top Japanese bike), Jack Miller (8th, top KTM), Augusto Fernandez (9th), and Fabio Di Giannantonio (10th) who completed the top 10.

Full MotoGP results from the Catalan Grand Prix are below.

2023 MotoGP Catalunya Results | Grand Prix

Sprint

The MotoGP Sprint in Barcelona was intensified by the arrival of some rain just before the start. In the end, it had no effect, as Aleix Espargaro stormed to a first Sprint victory.

In case anyone was fearing a boring MotoGP Sprint after Francesco Bagnaia’s pole position in Barcelona, rain began to fall right as the field left the grid for the warm-up lap.

It was a full-dry start, and it was a Ducati 1-2 by turn one. Bagnaia made the holeshot ahead of Jorge Martin, but the latter immediately lost out to Maverick Vinales, and then to the second Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro, who then took over second place at the beginning of lap two.

Bagnaia had started to make a break by lap two, but two laps later Aleix Espargaro had joined him to make it a four-wheeled breakaway at the front. Behind, Vinales, Brad Binder, and Miguel Oliveira were battling for third place.

By half-distance, it was clear that Bagnaia and Espargaro were riding opposite motorcycles. Bagnaia was strong on the brakes and corner entry, and Espargaro had superior speed from mid-corner to the exit, especially out of the crucial turn 14 onto the start-finish straight.

It took Espargaro a few attempts to make his move on Bagnaia, due to the late-braking of the Italian, but he eventually forced a block pass into the lead at turn one on lap seven.

Immediately, Espargaro began to impose his pace. By the end of lap seven, Bagnaia was almost 0.6 seconds behind the #41, and he was slipping back into the clutches of third-placed Vinales, who was still facing pressure from Binder and Oliveira.

Espargaro was two seconds clear onto the final lap, and it was almost an equal margin over the line a lap later despite a big wheelie from the winner. This was mostly thanks to Bagnaia, who threw corner speed out the window in his quest to defend from Vinales.

It was a quest in which Bagnaia was successful, but there was nothing he could do about Espargaro, who was dominant in his cruise to a first ever Sprint win, ensuring that it was relatively boring after all, as the rain never made a difference and Espargaro himself eliminated any possibilities of a late race victory fight with his superior pace.

Vinales held onto third place to complete an Aprilia 1-3, while Brad Binder took fourth place (and top KTM), ahead of Jorge Martin (5th, after a run-on at the first corner on lap three), and Miguel Oliveira (6th) who ensured Aprilia had three bikes in the top six.

Johann Zarco repeated the move of Valentino Rossi on Jorge Lorenzo in 2009 to pass Marco Bezzecchi. Unfortunately for Zarco, it was not for victory, but for seventh. Bezzecchi took eighth, ahead of Enea Bastianini, who took the final point in ninth; while Alex Marquez completed the top 10.

Full MotoGP results from the Sprint in Barcelona are below.

2023 MotoGP Catalunya Results | Sprint

Qualifying

Very light rain at the end of MotoGP FP2 still hung around for the start of qualifying at the Catalan Grand Prix, but in the end it had no effect on proceedings. Francesco Bagnaia set a new lap record to take his second pole position in as many races.

Q1 saw Marc Marquez defy the odds, in a kind of reminder of what could be, to put his ailing Honda RC213V into Q2, beating the likes of KTM’s Jack Miller and GasGas’ Pol Espargaro. Miguel Oliveira topped the session, joining Marquez in advancing.

After the first runs in Q2, no one - including Oliveira himself - had beaten the #88’s best time from Q1, indicating that everything would be decided in the final stages of Q2.

In those final stages, Francesco Bagnaia broke the lap record set yesterday in Practice by Aleix Espargaro. Bagnaia’s 1:38.639 was enough for him to take pole position, in the end over Espargaro, for the second race in succession.

In Bagnaia’s success, Espargaro was denied a second consecutive home race pole position, but he will start this weekend’s two races from second place. The key, as ever for Aprilia, will be the start.

That is also true for Miguel Oliveira, who crashed at turn five in the pre-qualifying FP2 session, but came through Q1 to qualify third. He might have had pole position, but got caught up behind Marc Marquez in the final split, which undoubtedly cost him time. Whether the loss there was equal to or more than the 0.109 seconds he missed to Bagnaia will never be known, of course, but it is clear that Oliveira, on the satellite RS-GP and who won in Barcelona two years ago, is here to fight for the podium just as much as the factory Aprilia riders this weekend.

Maverick Vinales made it an Aprilia 2-3-4 with the fourth fastest time in Q2. He will be joined by Jorge Martin (5th) and Johann Zarco (6th) on row two; while the Gresini Ducati duo of Alex Marquez (7th) and Fabio Di Giannantonio (8th, his best qualifying of the season) lead Brad Binder (9th, top KTM) on row three.

Marco Bezzecchi’s qualifying did not go to plan. In general, it has been a difficult weekend so far for the VR46 Racing Team, whose second rider, Luca Marini, qualified only 18th. Bezzecchi was better in 10th, but it leaves him in one of the worst positions of his season.

Enea Bastianini qualified 11th, but a three-place grid penalty for impeding in Practice on Friday means he will start 14th in the Grand Prix, although he will maintain that 11th place for the Sprint.

Marc Marquez was the slowest of the 12 riders in Q2, but will benefit from Bastianini’s grid penalty in the Grand Prix to start 11th, as will Jack Miller who will move from the front of row five to the back of row four, while Pol Espargaro - who qualified 14th - will start 13th tomorrow courtesy of Bastianini’s penalty.

Full MotoGP results from qualifying in Barcelona are below.

2023 MotoGP Catalunya Results | Qualifying

Practice

MotoGP Practice was especially intense in Barcelona. High temperatures and low grip meant that extracting the most from a lap without throwing it all away was especially difficult. Able to extract the most from conditions was Aleix Espargaro, who completed a sweep of Friday practice at his home race.

Practice started out badly for Francesco Bagnaia. Low grip and high temperatures are perhaps the worst conditions for Bagnaia and Ducati. Not that they cannot adapt to them, but they always do have to adapt to them. As in Jerez, for example, Bagnaia was able to make that adaptation in Barcelona, but even more quickly this time. At the Spanish Grand Prix, Bagnaia took until Saturday morning - by which time he was in Q1 - to figure out a setting he found comfortable. In Barcelona, though, it took only the first half of the Friday afternoon session.

Bagnaia ended his first run of Practice in 20th, but his second in first. A number of fast laps before Bagnaia began his time attack meant he was back down in 14th when he started it. Eventually, Bagnaia finished Practice in third, but the star of the show was clearly Aprilia.

Aleix Espargaro was one of the only riders to use a soft tyre in FP1 on Friday morning, so it was hard to take his first position in the session as anything of much importance. But, on Friday afternoon, there was no doubting the legitimacy of his pace.

Espargaro finished Friday at his home Grand Prix 0.362 seconds clear of his nearest challenger, and with a new lap record in his pocket.

For Aprilia, the cherry on the Espargaro cake was in the shape of Maverick Vinales, who put his own RS-GP in second place, completing an Aprilia 1-2.

The key to lap time in Barcelona is grip, both on the edge of the tyre and driving out of corners, because the track surface provides none, so the bike has to generate all of its grip itself. If the Aprilia is the best at this, then the Japanese bikes - the Hondas and Yamahas- are the worst. Fabio Quartararo was the fastest Japanese bike for Yamaha in 17th; his teammate Franco Morbidelli was 18th; the Honda quartet was led by Marc Marquez in 19th, and Joan Mir was slowest of all in 22nd. All six Japanese bikes were in the bottom six positions, and all four Hondas were in the bottom four positions. Even by the Underworld standards of 2023, this was a disastrous day for Honda and Yamaha.

Back at the front, and Johann Zarco was fourth fastest overall, one place ahead of Brad Binder in fifth, on the top KTM.

Alex Marquez completed the top six on the third Ducati (and top GP22), ahead of fellow GP22 runners Marco Bezzecchi (7th), and an impressive Fabio Di Giannantonio (8th). The top 10 was completed by two more Ducatis, with Enea Bastianini in ninth, and Jorge Martin in 10th. 

The only Ducati outside the top 10 was Luca Marini, a fact of little surprise considering his own issues with generating rear grip.

Full MotoGP results from Practice in Barcelona are below.

2023 MotoGP Catalunya Results | Practice

FP1

Typically sunny conditions greeted the MotoGP riders for FP1 in Barcelona. Its now untimed nature meant some interesting new items were tried by some riders, but the fastest time was set by Aleix Espargaro.

Perhaps the most interesting piece of hardware to be tried by anyone in FP1 in Barcelona was the new double-barrel exhaust on the Yamaha of Fabio Quartararo. Simon Crafar, on the world feed commentary, also mentioned that he saw something different in the airbox and fuel tank area of the bike, suggesting Yamaha could be trying some new things regarding centre of mass, and/or the airbox to try to find a bit more power without changing the engine itself.

Jorge Martin also had something different on his Ducati, but not something necessarily new. The updated ride height device that Francesco Bagnaia benefited from on the starts in Austria is currently now also present on the Desmosedici of Martin.

Aleix Espargaro was one of the few riders to head out on track with a soft rear tyre at the end of FP1. That allowed him to go fastest, leading an Aprilia 1-2 ahead of his teammate Maverick Vinales.

The aforementioned Martin scraped his shoulder all the way to being the top Ducati with the third fastest time overall, while Brad Binder (4th, top KTM) and Francesco Bagnaia (5th) rounded out the top five.

Pol Espargaro (6th) completed the top six, ahead of Miguel Oliveira (7th), Franco Morbidelli (8th, top Yamaha, top Japanese bike), Fabio Quartararo (9th), and Johann Zarco (10th), who completed the top 10.

Full MotoGP results from FP1 in Barcelona are below.

2023 MotoGP Catalunya Results | FP1

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