This week, the racing world turns its attention to Barcelona for the Gran Premi de Catalunya, the sixth round of the season. Known for producing some of the most spectacular races on the calendar, the Catalunya circuit poses a unique challenge due to its notoriously low surface grip. Pedro Acosta will be racing at home and is ready and ‘hungrier’ to be at his best.

Nicolas Goyon, Team Manager of the Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 began to speak about the upcoming race weekend:

– We are heading to Barcelona this week for the Gran Premi de Catalunya, round six of the calendar. This event usually generates spectacular races, because the surface grip is one of the lowest of the season, and all riders manage their tyres for the final laps, which are always explosive. Many riders consider this Grand Prix as their home race, and it will be the case for our two Spanish riders, without forgetting that Catalunya is where everything started for the GASGAS brand.

He then shifted his attention to the number 31 of the team, the rookie Acosta that comes to race again after crashing in Le Mans: ‘Pedro Acosta saw his point-scoring series end in Le Mans’.

The desire is to do more than well, with the french manager to leave a note towards the rider spirit: ‘Until his early crash in the main race, he was the only rider on the grid to have scored points in every sprint and race, which was a decent record for the rookie. We know that he was not happy with his crash, but it is part of the learning process in the premier class, and Pedro will be back even hungrier this week’.

O conteúdo Nicolas Goyon warns Pedro Acosta’s rivals: ‘He will be back even hungrier this week’ aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

The MotoGP is about to get underway once again and now with the Circuit of Barcelona-Catalunya to host what will be the sixth race of the calendar. This will be the second year where the schedule will have two races, with Aleix Espargaró to be the great winner of the premiere edition of this format, winning both races of 2023.

From year to year the situation changes and there were plenty of different winners in the last five years, with the sole rider to repeat the first place on the podium to be Fabio Quartararo (2020 and 2022) – excluding the Sprint Race – with Marc Márquez to win in 2019, Miguel Oliveira in 2021 and Aleix Espargaró last season.

Looking at what is happening right now in the championship standings Jorge Martín leads (129 points), he who is still looking forward to put his name on the most recent winners, just like Pecco Bagnaia (91 points), while Marc Márquez (89 points) is looking to take his first win of the season at home and return to the winning ways.

We shouldn’t forget about Enea Bastianini (89 points also) who is on a growing trend, nor Maverick Viñales (81 points), who already got to win this season and was last year two times on the podium.

As for the latest winners Fabio Quartararo isn’t going through the best moment, neither is Yamaha, and is currently 12th with 25 points, while Miguel Oliveira 14th with 23.

Catalan GP winners/podiums from 2019 up until now:

2023

Sprint Race:
1st: Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia Racing)
2nd: Maverick Viñales (Aprilia Racing)
3rd: Jorge Martín (Pramac Racing)

Main/Long Race:
1st: Aleix Espargaró
2nd: Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team)
3rd: Maverick Viñales

Pole position: Pecco Bagnaia

2022

Race:
1st: Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP)
2nd: Jorge Martín
3rd: Johann Zarco (Pramac Racing)

Pole position: Aleix Espargaró

2021

Race:
1st: Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing)
2nd: Johann Zarco
3rd: Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team)

Pole position: Fabio Quartararo

2020

Race:
1st: Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT)
2nd: Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar)
3rd: Álex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar)

Pole position: Fabio Quartararo

2019

Race:
1st: Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda Team)
2nd: Fabio Quartararo
3rd: Danilo Petrucci (Ducati Lenovo Team)

Pole position: Fabio Quartararo

O conteúdo Check the last Catalan GP winners: What is your prediction? Get ready for another epic battle! aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Maverick Viñales is one of the riders to stood out the most in 2024, even taking a win already (at Austin). With some to put him on contender for the title, the rider in on the rise after a though period a couple of years back when he mentality was not at his best but now that everything is being the back, he is stronger than ever, he considers.

The Aprilia Racing rider recalled his time at Yamaha where he was constantly being criticised, as quoted on Motosan: ‘In Austria 2021, it was very hard, we received a lot of criticism, without reason, obviously, because not everyone is there to understand what is happening.I was criticised a lot about my head, I don’t know what. In the end, you can see, give me the bike, I’ll put on the gas and I’ll be there in front, I don’t have any mania or any problem or anything, of course’.

Contrary to other MotoGP riders who confessed to resort to pyschological help, that wasn’t the case with the #12: ‘I haven’t gone to any psychologist, I haven’t gone to anything. Honestly, I am… how would I say it, I try to be… how would I say it in a tribe from before? A guru, no, a sorcerer of yourself, you have to know yourself’.

Such moments made him grow, he assures, and made him stronger, with Aprilia by his side: ‘This whole experience has helped me a lot to get to know myself and where I am. We have taken very positive things from 2021 or 2022, which have outweighed the negative ones, but by far. We have grown a lot in just two years. That has been very good, it has made me very strong’.

O conteúdo From almost retiring to being considered an outsider for the MotoGP title, Maverick Viñales bounced back: ‘It made me very strong’ aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Perspective can play a funny game. If you’re looking down from the leader, 38 points feels like a fairly significant gap for Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac Racing) at the top of the FIM MotoGP World Championship. Likely not for him, but it’s more than a weekend’s worth of points looking from a purely objective standpoint. He could spend the Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya in the grandstands and still lead come Monday.

If you’re Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) looking up from second, knowing you made up 91 points in 2022 when there were only 25 on offer each weekend, it also feels far from panic stations. It feels close enough, after a fair dash of bad luck too, to explain why you wouldn’t roll the dice on the last lap of the French GP. Bank and move on, come back stronger. Barcelona would also be a statement as he’s never taken a GP podium there, one of only three venues of which that’s true.

If you’re an eight-time World Champion looking up from third, in the top three of the riders’ standings for the first time since 2019 – before it all unravelled as the line between magic and physics was suddenly blurred – and you’re only getting faster? 40 points suddenly feels like nothing at all. Such is the delicious standoff between Martin, Bagnaia and Marc Marquez (Gresini Racing MotoGP) as we roll into Barcelona.

Come at me bro

Bagnaia’s statement in Jerez remains as stunning as the day he made it. To stand face to face with one of the names already in the debate for greatest of all time, before he’s even retired, and not only not back down but come out on top? Statement made. Martin’s throwdown at Le Mans is likewise more than the sum of its parts, taking on not only the reigning Champion but that same duel from Jerez and beating both. In style, too. A different style to Bagnaia in Jerez, and a different style to Marquez. Three approaches to attacking the same goal is part of what has made the story so electric so far. Martin is explosive, Bagnaia unruffled, and Marquez? Marquez redefined an era and is now making his mark in another.

His season so far can be summed up by the vision of him screaming back onto the scene into the chicane at Le Mans, when it looked like the fight for the win was a last lap duel and he made sure it wasn’t. From P13 on the grid and last year’s bike. Now, he just needs to do it again, and again, and again – but no one else on the grid has his experience of doing just that. Three riders, three approaches, one incredible show.

Still, however much the last couple of races have been a stunning showdown between the reigning Champion, the pretender to the throne and the benchmark of an era, all determined to show each other exactly what they’ve got, it’s not a grid of three. It wasn’t in Qatar, or Portugal, or the Americas, or Jerez, or Le Mans. And it won’t be in Barcelona as one of the most packed fields in MotoGP history rolls into town ready to paint another masterpiece.

No takebacks, only comebacks

The results for the French GP are, however, deceptive in some ways. If Enea Bastianini (Ducati Lenovo Team) hadn’t cut that apex and been given the Long Lap penalty, the ‘Beast’ would surely have been in the podium hunt. Conceivably, that would also have kept him in the top three in the standings. But he’s not, and there are no takebacks in MotoGP… only comebacks. As the rumours around the future swirl, can Bastianini make his own statement in Barcelona? He’s been far from slow in 2024, he knows what it takes to win, and he has a very good track record at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. He also probably wants to remind everyone exactly why he’s on the machine he is – he won four races in the seat Marc Marquez occupies now and two were in the first four.

Marco Bezzecchi (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team), meanwhile, was pretty fast in France but crashed out, so he’ll want to bounce back after that uptick in Jerez, whereas teammate Fabio Di Giannantonio will be keen to show he had the upper hand regardless. Franco Morbidelli (Prima Pramac Racing) got that coveted finish after some solid speed, taking P7, but that still won’t be enough for him. And for Alex Marquez (Gresini Racing MotoGP) – on home turf and a track where he has a good record – it’s definitely a mission to get back in that postcode he occupied in Jerez.

Your rivals are expecting you

For Aprilia Racing, it’s a case of “no pressure, but-” looking back on the factory’s 2023 Catalan GP. Aleix Espargaro did the double, and Maverick Viñales took P3 in the Sprint before making it a 1-2 on Sunday. It’s unlikely the marque won’t be at the front in 2024 too, but it will be interesting to see if the pecking order changes. Espargaro has a great record at Catalunya but Viñales has had his measure more often than not in 2024 – already having won a Grand Prix race and two Sprints. Which is an understatement for the #12, as his COTA win is most definitely one of the most otherworldly masterpieces hanging in the 2024 gallery so far. To make it feel fairer for the rest, he could have dropped to the back and started painting from there.

At Trackhouse Racing MotoGP, Miguel Oliveira will want to turn it around after Le Mans, with a solid Jerez not proving a building block as yet. He did knock Marc Marquez out of Q2 though, which is no small scalp. His teammate, Raul Fernandez, will be an interesting watch too – he’s on the machine that won the 2023 GP, and he had a solid French GP getting the measure of Oliveira. What can he do in Barcelona?

It was a tougher weekend at Le Mans for KTM and GASGAS. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) found himself in a shocking last place on the grid after a nightmare run up to the lights going out, but on Sunday he pulled off a classic Binder and came home a solid eighth. For rookie sensation Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GASGAS Tech3) it was almost the reverse as he qualified P7 and then made his first and only Sunday mistake so far, crashing out – alone by a hair’s breadth – to bring his run as the only rider to score in all Sprints and GP races so far to an end. Le Mans and Acosta don’t mix, so far. But both will be reset to come out swinging in Barcelona, a venue KTM have already won at. Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), meanwhile, is missing the later race pace and will want a solid finish, and Augusto Fernandez (Red Bull GASGAS Tech3) scored points in France but is still looking for that step forward.

Pour encourager les autres

Said unironically, there were some standouts in France. At Yamaha, there was plenty to celebrate from Fabio Quartararo’s (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) home GP, even if the points didn’t end up on the board. The Frenchman went straight through to Q2 and on Sunday, was up in sixth before a crash out. But that livery – savage – said it all about the performance. With his stunning track record at the venue, can he do similar in Barcelona? Teammate Alex Rins, meanwhile, is looking for more after a tougher one in France and will want to turn the tables on his own home turf.

Johann Zarco (CASTROL Honda LCR) pulled some gap on his fellow Honda riders at Le Mans too, and he’ll want to keep that roll going. After a more positive Jerez, Joan Mir (Repsol Honda Team) will want a solid finish to hit back, and the mission continues for Takaaki Nakagami (IDEMITSU Honda LCR) and Luca Marini (Repsol Honda Team) to move forward as the project looks to make a big step. After a test for Yamaha and Honda at Mugello, and with a wildcard this weekend for Stefan Bradl, it’s all hands on deck to make those gains.

The field they’re fighting in has also never been closer. The average gap between first and second in the first five Grand Prix races of 2024 is just 0.951 – the first time in the MotoGP era it’s ever been less than a second. Even better than that, it’s not simply a mad dash or a game of chance, it’s a gallery of masterpieces painted by the best in the world. So join us when MotoGP returns to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya from the 24th to the 26th of May – from the grandstands, from the sofa, from wherever you are in the world, and watch the world’s most exciting sport make racing a fine art.

Showtime:

Saturday
Tissot Sprint: 15:00 (UTC +2)
Sunday
Grand Prix: 14:00 (UTC +2) 

Source: MotoGP

O conteúdo Battle lines drawn: a standoff for the ages arrives in Barcelona aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

The MotoGP race in 2019 was filled with drama and a very special winner, none other than Marc Márquez who, in 2024, is racing at the category for the first season with the colors of other brand and looking in great shape to take his first ever win with Ducati.

At home the #93 promises to be a real headache for the top riders as he is getting more competitive from weekend to weekend and now heads to a track he knows very well and in which he enjoyed a lot of success in the past.

Stay with this little memory from 2019 and ask yourself: will we see the same images once again of the former world champion at the podium? The answer is right around the corner…

Home sweet home

Throwing it back to @marcmarquez93's 2019 win in his backyard #CatalanGP pic.twitter.com/gaspZyulDY

— MotoGP (@MotoGP) May 20, 2024

O conteúdo Video: Throw back to 2019 Marc Márquez’s win at home, in the Catalan GP aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Valentino Rossi marked an era in MotoGP and after ending that stage of his career he dedicated himself to four-wheel racing and after reaching the podium in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) he managed to win once again this weekend in the GT World Challenge Europe at Misano.

With Team WRT BMW, the 45-year-old Italian continued his legacy and more in front of the Italian fans and once again took the top step of the podium in the competition after succeeding Martin, who had a strong start and drive in the first stint and then proved very skilful in fending off Charles Weerts.

This victory serves as a tonic for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in which he will take part for the first time next month, as last year he already won at the same venue in France before the ‘main course’ at the French circuit.

And after that he’ll take another podium.

Valentino Rossi (#46 BMW M4 GT3): 

– A fantastic weekend here at Misano! To have won at home again after last year is great. Maxime secured pole position on Friday, but I knew immediately that it would be tough in the race against our sister car. That’s how it turned out, and Charles Weerts put a lot of pressure on me at the end of the first race, but I didn’t make any mistakes and brought home the victory. I am very happy about that. In race two in the evening, we tried to finish second, but we couldn’t overtake on this track. Nevertheless, we can leave Misano very happy with a double podium.

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O conteúdo Valentino Rossi back to what he knows best with victory at Misano in the GT World Challenge Europe followed by another podium finish aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

We are coming back to MotoGP racing and this weekend Barcelona with host another GP with a home feeling for Augusto Fernández who is confident in getting a good result after a poor weekend at Le Mans.

The Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 rider made his preview on the next round, the sixth, the of the season: ‘I am excited to head to Montmeló this week, a home GP for me. After Le Mans, the results were still not what we wanted, but there were some positives because I am feeling better with the bike and my riding. Barcelona is a track that I like, we had a good result last season, so I can not wait to get the work started on Thursday already’.

His team will also have a special feeling in racing at Catalunya: ‘We will also be on GASGAS lands, so I am excited to race there and enjoy the atmosphere of the Grand Prix of Catalunya’.

In 2023 Fernández was 17th in the Sprint race and 9th on the long race of sunday.

O conteúdo Augusto Fernández filled with excitment in his home GP: ‘Barcelona is a track that I like, we had a good result last season’ aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Toni Bou (Montesa) and Emma Bristow (Sherco) maintained their perfect starts to the 2024 Hertz FIM Trial World Championship on day two of the Taisei Rotec TrialGP of Japan with winning performances in the premier TrialGP and TrialGP Women classes to back up their victories yesterday while Jack Peace (Sherco) finished today on top in Trial2.

• Toni Bou and Emma Bristow maintain their perfect starts to the season
• Dan Peace claims his first win of the year in Trial2
• Taisei Rotec TrialGP of Japan gets 2024 series off to a successful start

With the severity of a number of sections at the Mobility Resort Motegi slightly increased following Saturday’s opening day of action, record-breaking Bou – who is attempting to win his eighteenth straight TrialGP crown this season – put on a masterclass in front of a huge crowd of twelve-thousand spectators.

While rain threatened, the day remained warm and dry resulting in similar conditions to yesterday with grip still a rare commodity on the near-vertical climbs and descents and over the huge imported boulders that featured in the majority of sections, but the Spanish star took everything in his stride.

A maximum on section six when he was adjudged to have rolled backwards with his foot down was the only major blot on his opening lap of ten that gave him a four-mark advantage ahead of a revitalised Adam Raga (Sherco) with Gabriel Marcelli (Montesa), who was second yesterday, completing the all-Spanish top three at the halfway point on fifteen.

Trial fans are used to seeing Bou soak up the pressure in close events before turning up the heat on his opposition and he did not disappoint with his second-lap total of nine putting victory out of his rivals’ reach.

At forty-two years of age, two-time champion Raga is the veteran of the class, but his change of teams and machinery over the off-season has clearly motivated the veteran and by adding just eleven more to his score on lap two he secured a comfortable second place – his best finish since 2022 – as twenty-four-year-old Marcelli collected an additional sixteen.

Marcelli’s hopes of catching Raga were effectively ended on section ten where he was desperately unlucky to collect a maximum on lap two when he punctured, although this late drama never threatened to drop him off the podium and he was still seven clear of his compatriot Aniol Gelabert (TRRS) at the end of the day.

The top five was completed by French rider Benoit Bincaz (Sherco) who finished one position higher than yesterday on a total of forty-three after reeling in Italy’s Matteo Grattarola (Beta) in the tense closing stages.

There was more misery for Jaime Busto (GASGAS), the TrialGP vice-champion for the last two seasons. Technical problems restricted the Spaniard to ninth yesterday and he struggled again today, slumping to a below-par seventh that is a major blow to his hopes of dethroning Bou at the end of the season.

Bristow is aiming to close her career in the top-flight with a tenth TrialGP Women title in eleven years and the thirty-three-year-old British star, who plans to retire at the end of the season, claimed her second win of the weekend – although it was a close-run thing.

Spain’s Berta Abellan (Scorpa) put in a sensational opening lap of just two to lead the defending champion by eleven before suffering technical problems at the halfway stage of the second lap. As Bristow picked up the pace, adding just five to her total, Abellan piled up the marks in the final seven sections of the Trial and she slipped to third on a total of thirty-seven, ten behind Andrea Sofia Rabino (Beta) from Italy.

O conteúdo Bou and Bristow double up at Taisei Rotec TrialGP of Japan aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

The last GP at Le Mans was the first in which Pedro Acosta crashed during a race, in this case it happened on sunday early on at a time he was on the attack for the top positions. Now comes another GP at Spain, in Montmeló, and the wish to do well is clear.

Acosta recalled first than anything his feelings towards what happened in the last GP, but made sure to highlight he is ready to tackle this one in Barcelona: ‘Le Mans was a somewhat frustrating weekend since, as I said, we had the bike ready to reach the head of the race. I arrive in Montmeló with more enthusiasm and with clear ideas, so I will try to have a good Friday, continue on Saturday and finish it on Sunday’.

Being a circuit where grip isn’t exactly the best, the #31 will rely on the experience he got so far after his time in the main category:

– We will see how we manage the tyres throughout the weekend on a circuit with little grip, luckily in these first 5 races I have already learned something more about this topic. That said, I’m really looking forward to the weekend and seeing how the GASGAS audience fills the stands with red!

O conteúdo Pedro Acosta set to ride again: ‘Le Mans was a somewhat frustrating; I arrive in Montmeló with more enthusiasm and with clear ideas’ aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.

Tim Gajser and Jeffrey Herlings are the big winners at the MXGP in France! In the first race the Honda rider was the winner, while the Dutch KTM rider was the highlight of the second. With a 1-4 Gajser scored the most points, but Jorge Prado is still trailing him in the overall standings.

Team HRC’s Slovenian was fastest in the first MXGP race at Saint Jean d’Angely and beat reigning world champion Prado (Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing GASGAS) by 6.468s, while Romain Febvre (Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP Team) was third, ahead of his Swiss team-mate Jeremy Seewer. Pauls Jonass (Standing Construct Honda) was fifth, ahead of Herlings (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing).

And it was precisely the #84 who managed to improve substantially and thus win Sunday’s second race on French soil by beating Febvre, with Jonass also making very positive progress that earned him a place on the podium.

Gajser was fourth and beat Prado again to fifth.

In the overall standings, Gajser remains leader and ahead of Prado by five points (348 vs 343 points), Febvre is third with 319, Herlings fourth and Jonass fifth.

Race 1:

Race 2:

O conteúdo Tim Gajser and Jeffrey Herlings win race 1 and 2 of the MXGP of France aparece primeiro em Motorcycle Sports.