2024 MotoGP World Championship
Round Four – Gran Premio Estrella Galicia 0,0 de España
Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto – Sunday
Francesco Bagnaia – P1
“It was simply fantastic. We needed such a win, not only for myself but also for the team and everybody working with me. It was a very intense race, and it was crucial to make it to the lead on lap one. The overtake on the outside was really a nice one, I enjoyed it a lot. The race was decided in the last five laps: when Marc closed the gap I only tried to wait and fend off his attacks straight away and after his second attempt I decided to push as hard as I could in order to create a safety margin up to the finish line. I managed to set the fastest lap at the end, and everything went perfectly. I’m really happy: this is my third consecutive win in the full race here and that makes everything even more special.”
Marc Marquez – P2
“If I’m there the show is there, always we try, it doesn’t matter where we come, we’re coming from the shit. It is true, in the race I made a small mistake the first five laps, I’m human, and the mistake from yesterday was super heavy on the shoulders, I was super stiff. So I was extra careful, and the others overtook me. But today was the time to be on the podium but not to crash again, three crashes in a row is too much for a rider. I had the speed, the speed was super good, when I overtook Bezecchi the bike was incredible, it was flowing, I caught Pecco, but he defended aggressively in a good way. He played well his cards and then I did one lap more behind him, but it was impossible to brake hard. He surprised me with that fast lap in the last two laps. The contact was on the limit, he defended well the position, I wasn’t wide but he jumped in, and at one moment I was lucky I saw him and picked up the bike and we avoided a crash. I know when I started to understand that Pecco always jumps in and sometimes it is going well and sometimes no. And when it’s not going well, it would maybe abe zero points for me, but he defended well and this is racing. But it’s done congrats on the victory.
“Four years ago I started my nightmare, and it was super tough, but I hope and I wish that right now, I start my second life, you know. It’s true it was a nightmare, and still we don’t go out for that negative moment, but step by step we have positives and good news. I want to thank all the people around me, thank the people who support me a lot, Honda for respecting my decision and Gresini and Ducati for giving me the opportunity to ride for them and I’m happy. If I’m happy, I’m fast.”
Marco Bezzecchi – P3
“First of all thanks to the whole Team who worked so hard for this result, they never gave up and we believed in it. Here in Jerez I immediately felt good, even yesterday, despite the crash at the end, I was happy with the sensations on the bike. We needed the podium! I set a great start, by my standards I mean. That was the hardest part, then I just thought about racing. Pecco and Marc had something more today, I didn’t want to take risks, I tried to keep their pace as long as I could to keep a margin on those behind us. I’m very happy, I want to enjoy this moment, but also work on the testing session tomorrow and towards Le Mans, the next race, a special place for me.”
Alex Marquez – P4
“It was a positive weekend, and we did very well today despite a small problem with the front brake. We have an important test tomorrow so we must stay focused!”
Enea Bastianini – P5
“It was a difficult race as I couldn’t repeat the same type of start as in the sprint race, so I lost some ground. I tried to bounce back, but just like yesterday I didn’t manage to overtake Brad (Binder) throughout the race as he managed to hit the brakes later than me. Too bad, because I was expecting something more, but the result is still a good one. Surely I need to improve under braking, because I’ve been struggling a bit more compared to recent past and that makes my life a bit harder when it comes to try and overtake other riders. It’s a thing I’ve been noticing in most tracks this year. We were good about the rest and we improved throughout the weekend, so I’m quite happy.”
Brad Binder – P6
“Today’s race was a little bit tricky. I did not get the same start as yesterday and just didn’t have the same pace as the boys upfront. I tried my best but it wasn’t quite our day. I had a lot of chatter from the first lap and it made it difficult to carry corner speed. We need to sit down and work out what was going on because that was the first time we had the issue this weekend.”
Fabio Di Giannantonio – P7
“I’m happy because last year, on these first tracks on the calendar, I finished around 18th/20th place. Today, however, I achieved the fourth consecutive Top10 and we are close to the strongest riders. I made a mistake in the first laps, I was there, but I lost ground and then I wasn’t able to recover. I close a bit the gap at the end, but it was late, I could have aimed for the Top4. I’m happy in any case, we’re doing a great job, the sensations are good and now there will be tracks where I’ve already been strong in the past. Tomorrow we have a day of testing, we will try alternative ways to make a step forward.”
Miguel Oliveira – P8
“We made a little adjustment in today’s Warm Up and it seemed to work quite well. Also, the fact that we had the medium rear which, for some reason, was better for us and also for my riding style. I could manage it quite well but I just regret two mistakes in the race that cost me two places. I ran wide in turn six, that cost me the place to Bastianini and then out of 10, I mis-shifted one gear, my hand went forward, touched the holeshot device on the rear and I took all the last sector with the rear down and di Giannantonio overtook me there. It was not ideal, but I think everyone made some mistakes today, ran wide at some places and so it’s ok for us. I’m happy to come out with a real top 10 finish after three difficult races. Tomorrow we’ll be focusing to get a little bit more speed out of the soft rear tire, which we couldn’t do during the weekend and we will also try to fix some areas that we are not really happy with at the moment and just try to get this extra bit of speed.”
Maverick VInales – P9
“Our weekend was shaken up by our limited experience with this bike in the wet in qualifying, so starting from eleventh place conditioned the race. This serves as a learning experience and helps us continue to grow. We need to maintain a positive mentality and stay focused to attack in the upcoming races in Le Mans and Montmeló. In any case, we have great potential.”
Pedro Acosta – P10
“It is never easy to destroy one bike in the morning and then jump into the race on another bike with different clutches or other parts. Anyway, considering the events of the morning, we managed to save the result after a bad start in the race. The contact with Johann Zarco is what is likely to happen when you start from the middle of the grid, so we know that we need to qualify well, and avoid the mistakes made yesterday. Then we recovered pretty well in the race, we learnt a lot today, took experience, so we need to be happy with today.”
Raul Fernandez – P11
“At the beginning my race was super good, I felt very competitive. I had the possibility to overtake very well and was even in front of the factory riders in the group of Miguel. But, in the middle of the race, I tried to catch more riders in front of me and I got to Jack (Miller) and was fighting with him four or five laps. The temperature in the front tire increased because of that and when I tried to overtake several times, after a few laps I had an incredible temperature level in the front tire. I couldn’t stop the bike and had to lose a little bit of time to try to decrease the temperature of the front. At that moment, Pedro (Acosta) overtook me because I didn’t have the possibility to brake hard and we need to understand how to improve that, so it’s great to have the test tomorrow. Basically, I’m happy – we had the speed and also this morning we were competitive. In the afternoon, we were strong again, but when we have to fight a lot, it’s quite difficult for me so, while I’m satisfied, I obviously want more”.
Joan Mir – P12
“We have to be content with what we achieved today. From the start of the weekend until now we have been able to improve, and I really have to say thanks to my team for their work in helping us make this progress. Today I was able to make a solid race, I think achieving the best that I could with the package that we have at the moment. Of course, the gap is still very big and we need to keep on working but tomorrow, Monday, we have a test. I am looking forward to trying what we have to understand what the next steps are.”
Alex Rins – P13
“Tough race… Starting from the last position, it was not easy, but we did a better start than yesterday. I recovered some positions, and then I was behind Fabio for almost all the race, until about 11 laps before the end when I lost some tenths compared to him. But then I saw he started to struggle just like me, and I was able to catch him and overtake him. I’m feeling okay. For sure, this is not the result that we want, but this race was important for us because we took a lot of information. All the time we are on track gives us data that we analyse and try to understand. For tomorrow, we have many items to try. So, let’s keep going and let’s keep working!”
Takaaki Nakagami – P14
“It was a tough race; however, I had a consistent pace. The main issue was the lack of front feeling, but we are working hard to fix it. Tomorrow, we’ve got a test, which would be crucial to deciding which areas can improve for the next Grand Prix”.
Fabio Quartararo – P15
“I didn’t manage to get the same start as I had yesterday. We had an issue with rear grip, and then the bike became really physically tiring to ride. I had pain in my arm because I was braking too hard, and the last ten laps I was not able to brake anymore, so I had to slow down. It was a really tough race, I would say. We are missing a lot on the rear grip and turning, so hopefully in tomorrow’s test we can change that. I don’t expect a big, big step, but hopefully we do find an improvement to feel better on the bike and be faster.”
Stefan Bradl – P16
“We were able to finish an acceptable race in what was a busy weekend for us. As a rider you always want to do something more but we achieved what we set out to do here this weekend so it’s important to focus on that. Now we have a bit of a break before we are back to work again, but there is still a lot to do.”
Luca Marini – P17
“It was a really tough race. At the start I launched well but then there was a lot of contact in the back and we took some damage. When I tried to find my rhythm, I was much slower than I was expecting and the gap to Joan Mir was too big. We need to understand it and fortunately we have the test tomorrow. It will be important not just for the future but also for the next races. For sure Joan made a good race, but we are still far.”
Jorge Martin – DNF
“I was having a good race, had a great start, I was trying to be constant in those 37.9-38.0s and I was very comfortable at that base, then finally I made a mistake at corner six, I didn’t expect to crash at that corner. So we need to analyse well and work out why I crash, we cannot make that mistake any more. I am happy about the performance. We have improved a lot last year to this year in Jerez. I braked at exactly the same point, it’s complicated to understand why I crashed, for sure I lost some grip at that point, but it’s not a point where I was expecting to crash, there was some points I was more on the limit than corner six, and when you understand the crash it’s quite easier, for the mind, so let’s try to understand and improve. I’m confident because we improved a lot from last season, last season my top performance was fourth, this year we won yesterday, today we were able to win again, this is the most important thing. We have the skills, we have the speed, so I’m happy overall for the weekend.”
Augusto Fernandez – DNF
“I encountered a drag clutch issue at the start, I was in first and the bike kept going when I positioned myself on the grid after the warm up lap. That issue is still under investigation, but it continued to cause me troubles during the race. Anyway, we got the long laps, then the ride through, and then we just had to retire. A day to forget. The position point is that we have a test tomorrow, which I am counting on to improve the feeling on the bike. I hope to be building a better base that we can work from starting from Le Mans, and hopefully it will help us be more competitive.”
Johann Zarco DNF
“One of my rivals tried to overtake me, but he was late on the maneuver, lost the front, and hit my bike. These things can happen; it was a race incident. We’d done a good job until that moment, which is positive. We’ll keep pushing to improve and consistently fight for the points”.
Aleis Espargaro
“We were competitive on Friday. The two Aprilias were in second and seventh place, close to the fastest riders, but unfortunately everything was complicated by the rain in qualifying. I has a problem with the clutch at the start that cost me several positions and then I had contact with other riders. Unfortunately, I crashed out just as I was attempting to launch my comeback.”
Lorenzo Savadori
“I started well and I was battling in the points group. After about ten laps I began to suffer from wear of the medium tyre and then I had a problem with the brakes. I had to retire because of this technical issue which made it impossible to continue the race.”
Jack Miller – DNF
“Unfortunately, the Spanish GP didn’t go as planned in what was another rollercoaster ride for us.
“We thought we could achieve some strong results here after last year’s performance and it’s always good to go to a place where you have a solid base setting to work from.
“We struggled a little bit in the practice sessions for comfort and also timing. It’s hard to find space on this circuit because it is so tight and it’s easy to come across other riders on your flying laps, which I got caught up in a little bit.
“Anyway, I did actually feel pretty good on the bike after we made some changes and moved away from what we were running in Austin, which translated to 5th in Q1 which was decent for us.
“For the Sprint Race, the track was tricky and we had some unfortunate issues that I was really battling out there, which ultimately resulted in dropping it and tumbling down the order. I did what I could to salvage a result in that one after remounting, and 14th is what we ended that day with which was disappointing.
“When it rains, it pours sometimes – so they say, and we’re battling hard as a team right now to turn a bit of that luck around, which I’m confident we’ll do, and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
“Unfortunately though, that luck would follow us into the Feature Race, where we were running solidly until I wore a bike to the side at turn 5 which sent us flying into the gravel and out of the race. Until then, I’d broken away from the pack behind me and was pushing to catch the boys in front, but ultimately it wasn’t to be.
“Disappointing, it feels like I’ve been saying this a lot lately, although we have a crucial test now and it’ll be nice to be able to cross a few things off the list and see where we’re at. Le Mans is next on the calendar, that’s a place I love having won there in the past, and is also a place I feel we can get these bikes hooked up well for.
“Until then, we’ll keep pushing, and pretty soon we’ll start stacking some good points on the board.”
Dani Pedrosa – DNF
“I made a good start and recovered some positions. I was hopeful of a good race and a good rhythm. For some reason I lost the front wheel in Turn 8. I was not pushing to the maximum there. Maybe it was because if you don’t take the perfect line then you hit a slippery spot. My aim was to make the top ten. Anyway we took some experience with the new bike, what it is capable of doing and ideas for the future direction of the development. We will also take away the atmosphere and the Sprint podium from yesterday!”
Team Managers
Luigi Dall’Igna – Ducati Corse General Manager
“Pecco’s race was one of the best, I would say the best, I’ve ever seen in MotoGP, and honestly speaking I’ve seen many of them. He overtook two riders under braking on the outside, he reacted in an incredible way to the attacks coming from Marc (Márquez) and managed to put together a superb lap time at the end of the race with the tyres completely worn out. He did everything he could to show once again how much of a great champion he is and that he deserves the two titles he has won so far. Enea did well in making the most of what was not a simple race, after a not-perfect start and considering the lack of feeling he experience with the front-end. We will keep working starting from tomorrow’s test, to make sure he re-join the battle for the podium from Le Mans already.”
Pablo Nieto – Team Manager
It was tough, these first three races Marco struggled a bit. The Team never gave up, they always gave everything and they did a great job. Today he did the rest on the track and this podium gives us a lot of confidence for the next races, he still has a lot of room of improvements on this bike. It’s a shame for Fabio, he had the speed to fight in the Top4, he entered the top ten for the fourth time in a row, he just needs to make a step on the start and the first laps. However, he is in the slipstream of the group and tomorrow on the testing day we can make another step forward with both guys.
Francesco Guidotti – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager
“Where to start?! A very strange weekend. Brad had some tricky vibration today through the left corners and that didn’t allow him to ride as he could. He took some good points but this is not his potential, for sure. Jack was also building up some points but his race finished in the gravel. Tomorrow we have the test and some interesting things to try; things that Daniel used here this weekend. It was a shame he did not finish the race but he hit one of the damp patches that was still there. Luckily, he is uninjured but a pity to close the weekend that way. We’ll work tomorrow, and also at the factory and look ahead to the next races.”
Nicolas Goyon – GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 Team Manager
“We did not really get the conclusion of the weekend we were expecting here in Andalusia! The day started bad for us when Pedro Acosta had a high speed crash in turn 7 due to some humidity patches on track. Luckily, he was not injured, but it is obviously not how you want to head to the main race. We knew that starting from P10 is not ideal, and things confirmed our worries as he got caught at the first braking and ended up in eighteenth, which was a shame. From there, he rode at a really good pace and made it back to P10, so considering the day we had, it is a solid result for Pedro Acosta. The luck does not seem to be on Augusto Fernandez’ side at the moment. Unfortunately, he had a small issue with the bike on the starting grid, and for that he changed his position, which resulted in a jump start, and therefore a long lap penalty. He was then shown another penalty, and finally he retired. It is a really tough weekend for him, and we are working hard to get through this period. We have an important test tomorrow, and we hope that he will be able to put his head in the right direction, so we can start performing!”
Wilco Zeelenberg – Trackhouse Team Manager
“It’s nice to see the amount of people here and also the weather was fantastic today. Both boys got very good results in my eyes; good pace for both, especially in the first part of the race with both in the low 1:38s, much better than they did yesterday. The medium rear worked very well; the balance of the bike was better than yesterday. Miguel had a fantastic start and a good rhythm, staying strong in the last laps at the end of the race to keep Maverick (Viñales) behind. I think we learned some important lessons again and tomorrow we have another test here to fulfill. For Raul it will be the moment to jump on the 2024 bike to try it and although he will not ride it in Le Mans, he will have the opportunity for his first feeling with the new package. It will be interesting to see how he feels and how he goes and obviously it gives us an opportunity to try things out of the window that we didn’t try yet and aim to improve for the upcoming races.”
Davide Brivio – Trackhouse Team Principal
“I think we can be happy about today as both our riders scored points. Miguel had a fantastic start, unbelievable, he overtook a lot of riders and then he was able to maintain his position. He managed the tires very well at the beginning so a very good race for him. Raul was also in a good spot and gained positions. He lost a little bit towards the end but it was positive. Both riders finishing the race, riding well and without mistakes and so I want to take this as another small step forward after Austin where we found better balance on the bikes and got both of them more comfortable. Here we consolidated this progress so we can move forward and I hope we can continue like this. Tomorrow we have the test and it will be important to review our situation and use the opportunity to further improve our performance and the rider’s feeling on the bike. So, we will work more tomorrow and look forward to continuing our progress in the coming races.”
Massimo Meregalli – Monster Yamaha Team Director
“It was a tough weekend in Jerez. Our riders had to start from the back of the grid again today, so the race was always going to be difficult. On top of that, both Álex and Fabio were struggling with the heaviness of the bike, because in low-grip conditions they have to ride the bike more physically. At this track you have to use the throttle and the brakes a lot without any rest, so this made this race even more demanding for them. It was a big fight for them to manage the last third of the race distance. There is clearly still a lot of work to do for us, so it’s great that we have a test day tomorrow and a whole race weekend’s worth of data that we can put to good use. We have many new items to try, but we have to prioritise the components that are the most vital, which are aerodynamics, an updated chassis, and some electronics settings.
MotoGP Jerez Race Results
| Pos | Rider | Bike | Time/Gap |
| 1 | F Bagnaia | Duc | 40m58.053 |
| 2 | M Marquez | Duc | +0.372 |
| 3 | M Bezzecchi | Duc | +3.903 |
| 4 | A Marquez | Duc | +7.205 |
| 5 | E Bastianini | Duc | +7.253 |
| 6 | B Binder | Ktm | +7.801 |
| 7 | F Di Giannantonio | Duc | +10.063 |
| 8 | M Oliveira | Apr | +10.979 |
| 9 | M Viñales | Apr | +11.217 |
| 10 | P Acosta | Ktm | +20.762 |
| 11 | R Fernandez | Apr | +23.508 |
| 12 | J Mir | Hon | +23.584 |
| 13 | A Rins | Yam | +28.452 |
| 14 | T Nakagami | Hon | +29.049 |
| 15 | F Quartararo | Yam | +32.015 |
| 16 | S Bradl | Hon | +41.433 |
| 17 | L Marini | Hon | +43.323 |
| Not Classified | |||
| DNF | A Fernandez | KTM | 6 laps |
| DNF | J Miller | KTM | 8 laps |
| DNF | F Morbidelli | Duc | 8 laps |
| DNF | L Savadori | Apr | 14 laps |
| DNF | J Martin | Duc | 15 laps |
| DNF | J Zarco | Hon | 16 laps |
| DNF | A Espargaro | Apr | 16 laps |
| DNF | D Pedrosa | KTM | 22 laps |
Jerez MotoGP Top Speeds Across Weekend
| Pos | Rider | Bike | Speed |
| 1 | D Pedrosa | KTM | 300.0 |
| 2 | J Miller | KTM | 300.0 |
| 3 | J Mir | Hon | 299.1 |
| 4 | P Acosta | KTM | 299.1 |
| 5 | S Bradl | Hon | 299.1 |
| 6 | B Binder | KTM | 298.3 |
| 7 | A Rins | Yam | 298.3 |
| 8 | E Bastianini | Duc | 297.5 |
| 9 | M Oliveira | Apr | 296.7 |
| 10 | M Bezzecchi | Duc | 296.7 |
| 11 | F Morbidelli | Duc | 296.7 |
| 12 | F Bagnaia | Duc | 296.7 |
| 13 | M Viñales | Apr | 295.8 |
| 14 | M Marquez | Duc | 295.8 |
| 15 | F Quartararo | Yam | 295.0 |
| 16 | J Martin | Duc | 295.0 |
| 17 | F Giannantonio | Duc | 295.0 |
| 18 | A Marquez | Duc | 295.0 |
| 19 | A Espargaro | Apr | 295.0 |
| 20 | R Fernandez | Apr | 294.2 |
| 21 | J Zarco | Hon | 294.2 |
| 22 | L Savadori | Apr | 293.4 |
| 23 | T Nakagami | Hon | 293.4 |
| 24 | A Fernandez | KTM | 292.6 |
| 25 | L Marini | Hon | 291.1 |
MotoGP Championship Standings
| Pos | Rider | Points |
| 1 | Martin | 92 |
| 2 | Bagnaia | 75 |
| 3 | Bastianini | 70 |
| 4 | Acosta | 69 |
| 5 | Viñales | 63 |
| 6 | Marquez | 60 |
| 7 | Binder | 59 |
| 8 | Espargaro | 39 |
| 9 | Bezzecchi | 36 |
| 10 | Di Giannantonio | 34 |
| 11 | Marquez | 27 |
| 12 | Quartararo | 25 |
| 13 | Oliveira | 23 |
| 14 | Miller | 22 |
| 15 | Fernandez | 12 |
| 16 | Mir | 12 |
| 17 | Fernandez | 10 |
| 18 | Pedrosa | 7 |
| 19 | Rins | 6 |
| 20 | Morbidelli | 6 |
| 21 | Zarco | 5 |
| 22 | Nakagami | 4 |
| 23 | Marini | 0 |
| 24 | Bradl | 0 |
2024 FIM MotoGP World Championship calendar (Updated)
| Rnd | Date | Location |
| 5 | 12 May | France Le Mans |
| 6 | 26 May | Catalunya Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya |
| 7 | 02 Jun | Italy Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello |
| 8 | 16 Jun | Kazakhstan Sokol International Racetrack |
| 9 | 30 Jun | Netherlands TT Circuit Assen |
| 10 | 07 Jul | Germany Sachsenring |
| 11 | 04 Aug | Great Britain Silverstone Circuit |
| 12 | 18 Aug | Austria Red Bull Ring-Spielberg |
| 13 | 01 Sep | Aragon MotorLand Aragón |
| 14 | 08 Sep | San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini Misano |
| 15 | 22 Sep | India Buddh International Circuit |
| 16 | 29 Sep | Indonesia Pertamina Mandalika International Circuit |
| 17 | 06 Oct | Japan Mobility Resort Motegi |
| 18 | 20 Oct | Australia Phillip Island |
| 19 | 27 Oct | Thailand Chang International Circuit |
| 20 | 03 Nov | Malaysia Sepang International Circuit |
| 21 | 17 Nov | Comunitat Valenciana Circuit Ricardo Tormo |
