MotoGP

Pedrosa, who retired from full-time competition at the end of 2018, made his second wildcard appearance of the season at Misano last weekend.

The 31-time MotoGP race winner finished fourth in both the sprint and the grand prix, narrowly missing the podium in each contest.

His performances were met with praise from all of the riders on the grid, with Aprilia’s Espargaro – who struggled to 12th in the GP – noting that Pedrosa’s form makes you question a lot about MotoGP.

However, he also added that it would not be fair to judge the quality of the grid against Pedrosa’s one-off appearances, as “Dani is very special”.

“Dani is awesome,” Espargaro said. “I really like the way he rides. He makes you doubt everything.

Superhero Bagnaia made use of his powers today at Misano. He's bruised - to say the least - but he had no intention of giving up and the first objective, direct entry into Q2, has already been achieved. Before talking about his day, however, we need to get something out of our head, that of him commenting on the rumours about the possible arrival of Marquez in the Gresini team. He replied with a smile: “I would be happy because we could have some good fights. If Marc came to Ducati he would certainly be very fast straight away, having a rival like him is always nice."

A new track record: 1m 30.390 s

Timings Available Here

Carbon fibre chassis are not a new concept in MotoGP, but a full frame made of the material has not been used since Ducati did so with its 2009, 2010 and 2011 bike. Though it was a race winner with Casey Stoner, Ducati struggled to retain its title-winning form from 2007 when it ran a steel trellis chassis, and abandoned the carbon concept for 2012 when it switched to a conventional aluminium design. Aluminium chassis were standard across the grid until KTM made its debut in 2017, bringing with it the return of the steel trellis chassis – a concept basically a part of the Austrian brand’s DNA. KTM regularly batted away suggestions that it would find competitiveness in MotoGP by joining its rivals in a switch to an aluminium frame, but steadfastly stuck to its guns. Since 2020, KTM won at least one race and has been rewarded with its determination. On Friday at Misano, however, KTM hinted at its next development step as 31-time MotoGP race winner Pedrosa completed both practice sessions – finishing third overall – on a carbon fibre frame. Aprilia has recently tested its own carbon fibre chassis, while numerous manufacturers have used carbon inserts on their aluminium frames over the past few seasons. But KTM is clearly at an advanced stage with its concept, which Pedrosa claimed has only been tested for a short time before its grand prix debut this weekend.

I know this isn't to everyone's taste, but a lot of linked articles are posted with headlines, and no text body. I find it hard to engage with the community like this.

I can't view motorsports articles unless I accept all the cookies and sign up - which I have no intention of doing. Same for twitter and other places.

Can we try to include a transcript of tldr bot in some way?

Ahead of this weekend’s San Marino Grand Prix – both Marini and the team’s home race – it was confirmed he would stay with his half-brother Valentino Rossi’s team for another year. "Remaining in the Mooney VR46 Racing Team also in 2024 is for me a question of trust in a very close-knit working group, which has believed in me for many years," Marini said. "As a team, we will do everything to achieve our goals the next season. "Not only Vale, Uccio [Salucci] and Pablo [Nieto] whom I thank, but the whole technical team that supports me and Ducati. "Being among the protagonists of the 2024 season, fighting for the Championship as a rider and as a Team is certainly a real ambition." Marini is currently seventh in the standings with 125 points, having scored his maiden podium at the Americas GP in Austin. He made his MotoGP debut in 2021 with the Avintia team but was backed by the VR46 organisation and sported their livery. He then joined Rossi’s VR46 team when it took over Avintia’s grid spots for 2022, alongside former Moto2 team-mate Bezzecchi.

The deal also gives Liberty a foothold in other sports and major events on the hospitality and entertainment side, including NASCAR's Chicago street race, the NBA, Australian Open tennis and the Kentucky Derby.

The deal to buy "greater than 90%" of Quint, which is expected to be completed before the end of the year, values it at $313m. The two organisations will continue to be run as independent companies.

Quint has gained a lot of momentum within the sport and impressed Liberty by creating F1 Experiences and expanding far beyond the traditional Paddock Club environment, allowing wealthy fans to sit on the pit wall or be entertained in pit garages.

"Quint has done a great job in creating F1 Experiences and their high-end hospitality," said Liberty CEO Greg Maffei.

"Things like giving you an opportunity to have dinner on Thursday night on the track, things like getting garage tours, things like hot laps that allow you to get in cars which are just a step below F1 and have someone drive you around a track and simulate the experience of being an F1 driver.

"All of those things have allowed them to have a great network and a great database of who our high-end customers are, reaching out, knowing how to sell them.

"They've also done that across other sports. They do things like the Kentucky Derby with Churchill Downs. They do the NBA All-Star game, and other sports like that."

KTM has currently found no solution to its rider logjam for the 2024 MotoGP season, with five riders contracted for four bikes.

At the centre of this is Moto2 championship leader and potential generational talent Acosta, who will be coming to MotoGP next season after KTM activated his contract for 2024.

Both Brad Binder, who has signed through to the end of 2026 now, and Miller have contracts for next year to remain at the factory squad. Tech3 riders Pol Espargaro and Augusto Fernandez also have contracts with KTM for next season.

It seems likely that Acosta will end up at Tech3, with KTM thought to be pitting Espargaro and Fernandez against each other to see who keeps their ride.

A wild rumour emerged over the last week, however, which stated Miller was offered a contract twice in size financially and 10 wildcards to make way for Acosta in 2024.

Speaking ahead of this weekend's San Marino Grand Prix, Miller – who is about to become a father – rubbished these claims.

"Was it Spanish? I don't even know who it was," he began when asked about the rumours of his future.

"It doesn't bother me. It's nice to have your name in the headline even though you're not.

The Ducati rider was involved in a terrifying incident on the opening lap of last week's red-flagged Catalan GP in Barcelona.

Bagnaia highsided violently exiting Turn 2 as he stormed into the lead from pole position and landed in the middle of the track as the rest of the pack raced towards him.

KTM's Brad Binder could do nothing to avoid the Ducati rider and ran over his leg, at which point the race was red-flagged.

Bagnaia received medical attention as he lay on the circuit before being transferred to the medical centre for checks.

Miraculously, no serious injuries were detected and a trip to hospital confirmed he suffered no fractures to his leg.

Bagnaia travelled to Italy to take part in a medical test on Thursday at Misano, which he has now passed and has been cleared to continue this weekend.

The Ducati rider comes into his home race leading the standings by 50 points, having come into the Catalan GP 66 ahead of Pramac's Jorge Martin.

Takahashi, who was part of the works Honda team that won the Suzuka 8 Hours last month, is set to make his first MotoGP appearance since he made a wildcard outing at Motegi back in 2015.

The 33-year-old Japanese rider will fill in for Rins, who is still recovering from the broken right leg he sustained in a crash in the Mugello sprint race in June.

Rins' place at LCR has been taken for the last three races by Iker Lecuona, who is unavailable this weekend due to a clash with the Magny-Cours round of the World Superbike championship.

Lecuona said previously that he would have to prioritise his Honda WSBK commitments in the event of any clashes with MotoGP, having also made two outings for the factory team in the latter series this year.

However, the young Spaniard is said to have made a good impression on Honda's engineers with his feedback and even volunteered to miss the Magny-Cours WSBK round to continue racing in MotoGP.

Sunday’s race marked the second consecutive weekend where Bezzecchi was taken out at the start of a race. In Austria Bezzecchi crashed out after an aggressive move from Jorge Martin left many riders with nowhere to go. And in Barcelona it was more of the same for the Italian as he was launched from his Mooney VR46 Ducati after Enea Bastianini clipped Johann Zarco. The collision resulted in Bezzecchi and both Gresini riders falling into the gravel, before the restart was taken by all four riders that were hit by Bastianini.

The problem for Bezzecchi is that he couldn’t use the medium front and instead swapped to a soft front tyre, which was the only available option.

Speaking about the first-lap pile up, Bezzecchi said: "Like in Austria I didn’t see anything. I just got hit by four/five bikes.

"When I saw the images after I understood [what happened] but then my bikes was not starting unfortunately.

Rea has penned a two-year deal with Yamaha to ride alongside Andrea Locatelli.

A statement by Kawasaki read: "Six time WorldSBK Champion, Rea, will leave the Kawasaki Racing Team at the end of the 2023 season. Formally contracted for both the current and 2024 seasons, Rea will be released from this agreement by mutual consent at the end of the racing season.

"During his time riding for the official factory team, 36 year old Rea achieved an unprecedented haul of six WorldSBK titles as well as accruing a slew of other records including all-time WorldSBK records for Championships, Race Wins, Podiums, Fastest Laps and Overall Points Scored."

Yamaha confirmed: "Yamaha Motor Europe is pleased to announce that six-time FIM Superbike World Champion Jonathan Rea will race alongside Andrea Locatelli in the Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK Official Team in 2024, having secured a two-year agreement with the Ulsterman.

"Rea is the most successful WorldSBK rider of all time, winning six consecutive titles in an incredible period of dominance between 2015 and 2020. The records don’t stop there, as he also holds the highest number of victories in the class with 119, the most podiums (256), and fastest laps (102), all from a history-making 401 starts.

"The Northern Irishman has also scored more points than anyone else in WorldSBK and has amassed over 6,000 since stepping up to the premier production class in 2008. On top of this, Rea also holds the record for the longest time between his first (Misano 2009) and last (Most 2023) wins, has 41 pole positions to his name and has been ever-present in the top three in the final WorldSBK Championship standings since 2014.

"Despite his phenomenal career, Rea’s hunger for success has not diminished, and his aim is clear, to add to his record-breaking tally of victories and become the first rider to win seven WorldSBK titles.

"Yamaha Motor Europe is delighted to have secured his services in a two-year deal. The new agreement will see Rea form a formidable partnership alongside Italian teammate Andrea Locatelli, with the duo competing onboard the highly competitive Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK R1 together until 2025."

Enea has undergone surgery this evening on his left ankle and left hand fractured in yesterday's crash at the CatalanGP. The two surgeries, performed by Prof. Catani and Prof. Tarallo at the Policlinico of Modena, were concluded successfully, and Enea will soon be able to begin the post-surgery recovery. The Ducati Lenovo Team rider will have to miss the next home GP in Misano and the two events scheduled at the end of the month in India and lanan