2023 Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing Season

The 2023 FIM MotoGP World Championship was the premier class of the 75th Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) Road Racing World Championship season, the highest level of competition in motorcycle road racing. The season saw the introduction of sprints on Saturdays, a short-form race of approximately half the length of the main event, in addition to the traditional Grand Prix event on Sundays.

Francesco Bagnaia successfully defended his Riders' Championship at the final race in Valencia, marking the first repeat Riders' Champion for Ducati since the manufacturer entered the series. Winning 17 of 20 Grands Prix and 16 of 19 sprints, Ducati secured their fifth (and fourth consecutive) Constructors' Championship. Ducati satellite team Pramac Racing won the Teams' Championship.

The season was notable for having eight different Grand Prix winners and no back-to-back Grand Prix winners for the first time since the inaugural season in 1949. Manufacturer Yamaha failed to win a single Grand Prix for the first time since 2003.

Season summary

Defending champion Francesco Bagnaia won the inaugural sprint race in Portugal, ahead of Jorge Martín and Marc Márquez, and repeated the win in the main race. At the second round in Argentina, KTM rider Brad Binder took the sprint win, while Marco Bezzecchi took his maiden premier class victory in a wet race. At the Grand Prix of the Americas, Bagnaia took his second sprint victory. Álex Rins stood atop the main race podium ahead of Luca Marini and Fabio Quartararo, marking the LCR Honda team's first win since Argentina 2018.

Starting the European leg of the season in Spain, Brad Binder took the sprint victory head of Francesco Bagnaia, while Bagnaia won the main race ahead of Binder. Both racing sessions were affected by red flags, and KTM rider Jack Miller closed out both podiums. The French round marked the 1000th motorcycle Grand Prix since the series began in 1949. In the sprint, Jorge Martín took his first victory of the season, while Bezzecchi emerged as winner of the main race, followed by Martín and his teammate Johann Zarco. At Mugello, Bagnaia took his second weekend sweep of the season in front of the home crowd, winning both the sprint and main race. In Germany, Jorge Martín took his first weekend sweep, winning both the sprint and main race after several close duels with Bagnaia. At the Assen TT, Bezzecchi took pole position and victory in the sprint, before relinquishing the main race win to Bagnaia, finishing second. Heading into the summer break, Bagnaia led the championship with 194 points ahead of Martín on 159 and Bezzecchi on 158.

Returning to action in Britain, Marco Bezzecchi took his second consecutive pole position, but dropped the sprint win to Álex Márquez, while Francesco Bagnaia failed to score points. Aleix Espargaró took his first win of the season in the main race ahead of Bagnaia, while Bezzecchi crashed out. In Austria, Bagnaia took his third weekend sweep of the season, finishing the main race in dominant fashion 5.1 seconds ahead of Brad Binder, with Bezzecchi taking third. With this result, Bagnaia held a 90-point lead over Jorge Martín at the midpoint of the season.

In Catalunya, Aprilia's Aleix Espargaró swept his home Grand Prix weekend with a sprint win ahead of Bagnaia and a main race win ahead of teammate Maverick Viñales and Jorge Martín. The main race was a disaster for Ducati, who saw five riders crash in a single first-lap incident (Álex Márquez, Enea Bastianini, Marco Bezzecchi, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Johann Zarco) followed a few corners later by a crash for championship leader Francesco Bagnaia. His legs were run over by Brad Binder's KTM, a resulting minor injury ruled him out of restarting the race and would have further implications for the championship. At the final race of the European leg in Misano, Martín completed a perfect weekend, taking pole position and victory in the sprint and main race, both times ahead of Bezzecchi and Bagnaia.

At the inaugural Indian Grand Prix, Jorge Martín won a rain-delayed sprint followed by Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Márquez. In the main race, Bagnaia crashed out after being involved in a duel with Martín, and Marco Bezzecchi took his third and final victory of the season, over 9 seconds ahead of Martín and Fabio Quartararo. With this result, Martín had reduce the championship gap to 13 points with seven races remaining. At the Japanese round, Jorge Martín again had a perfect weekend, taking pole position and winning the sprint and main race. The main race was red-flagged due to adverse weather conditions on lap 13 of 24. A restart was abandoned by race direction after the race was again red-flagged during the warm-up lap of the restarted race. Per regulations, full points were awarded since at least 50% of the original race distance were completed.

In Indonesia, Jorge Martín won his third consecutive sprint, ahead of Luca Marini and Marco Bezzecchi, securing Ducati its fourth straight Constructors' Championship. With his victory in the sprint, Martín took over the lead of the standings for the first time in the season by 7 points. In the main race, Francesco Bagnaia quickly returned to the top of the standings, after winning from 13th position on the grid and Martín crashing out. The race marked the 500th Grand Prix victory for tyre marque Michelin, whose first victory was in 1973 with Jack Findlay. On Phillip Island, heavy wind conditions caused a weekend schedule change, with the main race taking place on Saturday and the sprint on Sunday, weather permitting. In the main race, Johann Zarco took his maiden win in MotoGP, ahead of Bagnaia and Fabio Di Giannantonio. The sprint was cancelled due to inclement weather. At the Thai round, Jorge Martín had his third perfect weekend of the year, with pole position and sprint and main race wins. In Malaysia, Álex Márquez won the sprint ahead of Martín and Bagnaia, while Enea Bastianini took his first win of the season ahead of Márquez and Bagnaia.

At the penultimate round in Qatar, Luca Marini secured his second career pole position with an all-time lap record at the track. Jorge Martín took the win at the sprint race, while Francesco Bagnaia only managed 5th place. In the main race, Fabio Di Giannantonio took his maiden MotoGP win ahead of Bagnaia and Marini, while Martín struggled to a 10th-place finish. The final round at Valencia saw Martín win his ninth sprint race of the season, cutting the championship gap to 14 points for the finale race. Martin crashed out of the main race while attempting to recover from an early mistake, while Bagnaia took the race victory, sealing his second consecutive MotoGP world title.

Teams and riders

All teams used series-specified Michelin tyres.

Team changes

* RNF Racing switched to Aprilia after a season with Yamaha.
* Suzuki withdrew from the MotoGP class at the end of the 2022 season.
* Tech3 KTM Factory Racing were rebranded as GasGas Factory Racing Tech3. The team used KTM bikes. Tech3 continued to own and operate the team.

Rider changes

* Jack Miller moved to the KTM factory team from the Ducati factory team, replacing Miguel Oliveira

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