MotoGP Qatar Results, Grand Prix - Too late, too late

The 2023 MotoGP World Championship seems to be boiling to an exceptional finale in Valencia, but first comes the penultimate round at Qatar's Lusail International Circuit. Full MotoGP Qatar results will be posted to this page throughout the weekend.

Overview

Grand Prix - Di Giannantonio takes emotional victory as Bagnaia extends points lead

Sprint - Martin overcomes Friday difficulties for Sprint win

Qualifying - Marini takes pole as title contenders line up on row two

Grand Prix

Another for Jorge Martin saw him take charge of the MotoGP World Championship in the Qatar Grand Prix, as long-time points leader Francesco Bagnaia crashed out.

Francesco Bagnaia made the holeshot from fourth on the grid ahead of pole sitter Luca Marini, while Fabio Di Giannantonio was third early on. Jorge Martin had gone backwards at the start, and was eighth on lap one.

Martin was able to make some early progress, as his Pramac Ducati teammate Johann Zarco ran off-track in turn four, and then Martin found his way through on Marc Marquez for sixth place at the beginning of lap five.

It was at this point that Luca Marini - who had chosen the soft front tyre compared to the hard-compound that was the choice of all of the other front runners - started to go backwards. He was passed by Fabio Di Giannantonio, and then by Alex Marquez, whose move also allowed Brad Binder through.

Bagnaia had been leading relatively comfortably for the first eight laps, but by the end of that eighth tour Di Giannantonio was able to squeeze himself to within 0.2 seconds of Bagnaia. 

Things were getting worse for Martin by lap 11. Maverick Vinales found his way through at turn four, and then Marc Marquez did the same at turn six. Martin was able to retaliate on the Honda rider, but Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo re-relegated Martin to eighth, before Jack Miller made it ninth.

The events of his own race had made Martin - without him knowing it - the number one member of the Fabio Di Giannantonio fan club. Di Giannantonio was the only rider able to go with Bagnaia’s pace by lap 14, when they were two seconds clear of Brad Binder in third place on the lead KTM.

Ordinarily, considerations of the championship context would mean that Di Giannantonio - a satellite Ducati rider - would be expected to stay behind Bagnaia and let the reigning champion collect the 25 points. But the #49 is out of a ride, and saw in front of him what could be his only chance to win a MotoGP race, and his best chance to convince someone to give him a MotoGP ride for 2024.

Although Bagnaia’s position relative to Martin was comfortable by lap 18, his position in the context of only the Qatar Grand Prix was not. Di Giannantonio’s pressure was not subsiding, and with only four laps to go he was still glued to the rear wheel of Bagnaia.

He finally made his move to the front on lap 19 at turn 12, and sucked Bagnaia into running straight on at the first corner on lap 20. Bagnaia somehow managed to gather it up, but he lost 2.5 seconds to Di Giannantonio with his mistake. Again, somehow, this was not enough to cost him a position; he rejoined in third place and two seconds ahead of Luca Marini, who had broken free of what had been an intense battle for third place.

One (fairly monstrous) scare was all it took for Bagnaia to roll off the pace. He decided against chasing after Di Giannantonio, and cruised the last two laps in for an important second place, and 20 points.

For Di Giannantonio, his MotoGP story may be about to end in seven days, but at least he will be able to do it knowing he was able to show his full potential, and defeat the rider who may be about to win back-to-back MotoGP titles in a straight-up duel for a premier class Grand Prix victory. 20 months on from their emotional win on debut with Ducati, and without Fausto Gresini, Gresini Ducati were back on top in Qatar.

Bagnaia’s second place came 1.6 seconds in front of Luca Marini, who claimed his first double-podium of the season after his third place in yesterday’s Sprint.

Maverick Vinales should have been a part of the podium celebrations, but he took too long making overtakes in the middle of the race. He came through to fourth place as top Aprilia, ahead of Brad Binder (5th, top KTM), Alex Marquez (6th), Fabio Quartararo (7th, top Yamaha, top Japanese bike), Enea Bastianini (8th), Jack Miller (9th), and Jorge Martin, whose 10th place means he has 21 points to recover next weekend in Valencia if he wants to win the MotoGP World Championship.

Full MotoGP results from the Qatar Grand Prix are below.

2023 MotoGP Qatar Results | Grand Prix

Sprint

Jorge Martin has been the master of Saturdays in the first year of Sprints in MotoGP, but he came into the 11-lap Qatar encounter somewhat on the back foot after a difficult Friday. 

Luca Marini started from pole position for the second time in five races, and it was he that made the holeshot ahead of Alex Marquez and Jorge Martin. A mistake from Martin, though, made a mistake at turn four and dropped to fifth behind Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez.

Martin was able to reclaim fourth from Marquez at turn one on the second lap, and he immediately set his sights on Bagnaia’s third place, which he took at turn 10. The move pushed both of them wide, and Bagnaia then lost out to Fabio Di Giannantonio.

By now, there were no doubts about Martin’s pace, as he immediately jumped onto the back of Alex Marquez in second place.

Martin finally made his move on Marquez at turn six on the fifth lap. By lap six, Martin was leading.

Di Giannantonio was able to pass Marini for second place, but, although he was able to stay in touch with Martin, there was never a real opportunity for him to make the pass. Once the #49 had made his way into second, in fact, the Sprint became somewhat processional.

Martin was peerless at the front, his win proving his mettle in this title fight after what was a challenging Friday for the Pramac Ducati rider. In comparison, Bagnaia’s fifth place confirmed his lack of proficiency in Sprints that are potentially going to be the difference in the championship by the end of next weekend. His points lead was halved on Saturday night in Qatar.

Joining Martin - whose performance was capped off by setting the fastest second sector time of the race on the final lap - on the podium were Di Giannantonio and Marini.
Alex Marquez was fourth, holding on from Bagnaia, who was extremely disappointing and made zero overtakes throughout the 11 laps.

Maverick Vinales made decent progress in the middle of the race to come through to sixth place (top Aprilia), while Brad Binder was seventh (top KTM), Fabio Quartararo eighth (top Yamaha), Augusto Fernandez ninth, and Johann Zarco (10th) completed the top 10.

Full MotoGP results from the Qatar Sprint are below.

2023 MotoGP Qatar Results | Sprint

Qualifying

Qualifying in Qatar for the MotoGP riders was one of the most open in recent races, after Raul Fernandez topped Friday's Practice on the RNF Aprilia. Qualifying itself, though, went the way of the usual pole sitter of recent times - Jorge Martin.

Qualifying usually takes place under the lights in Qatar, but the 2023 schedule meant that this year's qualifying was in the light of the setting sun. Q1 saw a session of two halves, with none of the laps from the first run counting for much at all by the end of the session, which was finally topped by Johann Zarco, who advanced to Q2 along with Alex Marquez courtesy of a new lap record.

Q2 started with the attention on Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin, but it was Fabio Di Giannantonio who broke Zarco's new lap record with his first lap of the 15-minute session.

But it was Di Giannantonio's final lap that was his reference, a reference beaten only by Luca Marini, who seems also to have taken Di Giannantonio's potential Repsol Honda seat away from him for 2024.

Di Giannantonio took second place, but his pace is such that he could be in the fight for the podium in both upcoming races, as well as Alex Marquez who made it a Gresini Ducati 2-3.

Both title contenders ended up on the second row, with Francesco Bagnaia fourth and Jorge Martin fifth. Johann Zarco joins them on that row two in sixth place.

Marc Marquez was towed to seventh by Bagnaia, while Maverick Vinales and and Raul Fernandez completed the third row on factory and satellite Aprilias, respectively. The third Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro completed the top 10, and will be joined by the two KTMs in Q2 - those of Brad Binder (11th) and Augusto Fernandez (12th) - on the fourth row.

Full MotoGP results from qualifying in Qatar are below.

2023 MotoGP Qatar Results | Qualifying