MotoGP 2023
Round Eight – Assen
MotoGP Rider Quotes
Francesco Bagnaia – P1
“We improved this morning, we tried something different because we realised that this bike in certain situations needs a different setting, and it worked. I’m happy for that and happy that my team gave me what I was asking for. Sincerely today was quite tough, very long and the conditions were critical for the tyres. This morning in the warmup, everything was perfect but this afternoon the rear tyre was sliding around, I thought it was just me, but then I saw it was more or less the same for everyone. To be honest I prefer the longer race, because you have to administer and control everything more, I feel better doing that because sometimes in the shorter race you take too many risks. We’ve improved a lot in consistency in the last few races, we must continue like this. I’m happy to finish the first part of the season in this position; we can now go to the summer break with a positive balance of the first part of the season.”
Marco Bezzecchi – P2
“What a weekend, I’m delighted! I immediately felt good here: I took pole, yesterday the victory in the Sprint and today the podium in the GP. I don’t know what to say, a wonderful emotion. The first time I came here was with my family in 2005 to see Vale, who has always been my idol. A beautiful memory, we were on the grass, and today I’m here on the podium. What can I say today, I got off to a good start, then lost a few meters in the battle, but I didn’t give up. Six/seven laps from the checkered flag I started to feel a strange vibration, I was afraid of losing positions, I tried to hold on and not make any mistakes because with the M behind the bike spun more than yesterday. I’m satisfied, I’m going on holidays more than happy with this first part of the season. Thanks to all the Team: they are really giving everything!”
Aleix Espargaro – P3
“We deserve this! We have been working hard and we need to continue to do so. Today’s podium allows us to go on holiday with a bit more peace of mind. I started well but lost part of the front winglet straight away after contact with Marini. In fact, the bike moved around a lot and it wasn’t easy to maintain the pace. When I caught up with Brad, I tried to put him under pressure because overtaking was not at all easy. I knew he would be struggling in the finale with the soft tyre and, in fact, he was sliding around a lot and he touched the green. I’d like to dedicate this podium to everyone who works with me and to my family. This is not a simple sport and being surrounded by a good group of people is truly important.”
Brad Binder – P4
“To be honest, I can deal with this situation but I feel really sorry for my entire team. They did an incredible job all weekend and they gave me a bike that I could qualify really well. My start was insane and, somehow, we made the soft tire work until the end. We should have had two podiums. I don’t know what I was doing but I didn’t even realize I’d touched that area again. Sorry to the team and I will look at the positives of being strong all weekend and in Silverstone we’ll go again.”
Alex Marquez – P6
“We played our cards right: we solved some issues feeling-wise in the warm up and chose the softer tyre-option for the race, even though we knew we would have struggled in the second part of the encounter. After the 12th lap it was really challenging with the rear tyre, but we still managed to bag some important points and finish this first part of the season in a crescendo.”
Luca Marini – P7
“It was a very difficult weekend, but we brought home some points and that’s always good. We lacked something in terms of speed, especially in sector 4. I was really struggling to get the bike to corner, I think I have an idea on how to solve this problem, maybe already for the next race or always for this track in the future. Now let’s do a good reset, let’s enjoy the holidays, it will be a relaxing month and then the wedding and training to be more competitive at Silverstone.”
Takaaki Nakagami – P8
“Overall, there are many areas of the bike that we need to improve. I couldn’t push how I wanted, but I found a compromise that allowed me to keep my rhythm while not making mistakes. I believe that after the summer break, we’ll try different items that will help us improve in the upcoming races”.
Franco Morbidelli – P9
“It was a tough race and a tough weekend overall. We‘ve been struggling, but finally this morning we managed to make a step, and we were confident for the race that we would have a good pace and good performance. But, unfortunately, the grip in the race was awful. Moreover, we had blistering. I think that was a common problem. I was there with Fabio, and I saw immediately that the potential was much less. I just tried to collect as many points as possible and not make any mistakes, because making mistakes was easily done today.”
Augusto Fernandez – P10
“It felt a bit like a survival race today. I had a good start but then some issues in the first few laps and a moment at the final chicane. It was hot and difficult out there and I didn’t feel great on the bike. I tried to recover positions and wanted to get some points. It’s been a solid first half of the season but I want to make a step in the second half because I think I have the potential and will try to improve.”
Lorenzo Savadori – P11
“It was undoubtedly a great weekend. On a track where we do not test, and with a lot of things to try, just missing a top-10 finish in such a close race is truly wonderful. It’s a shame about a small problem at mid-race that forced me to slow down, just when I was rather easily recovering to move into tenth place. But nothing can take away this performance that does a world of good for me and for Aprilia, demonstrating the quality of our hard work.”
Raul Fernandez – P12
“I have to admit, that I was stupid. I felt super good with the bike today. Yesterday, we have been working on the electronic and I did a mistake in turn 11. I think I lost my race there. Sometimes, I think I am too ambitious and today, when I saw that we were catching the front group with Marini, Marquez, Nakagami and Miguel, I thought, today is the day and in that moment, I did a mistake. I didn’t crash, but I went straight and lost many seconds. Then I tried to come back to gather more experience and information on this bike and at least finished 12th. I need to say sorry to the team and Aprilia! But I am still happy, because the last three races, we saw that we are getting there. Sometimes, I just need to be calmer. Now we have a summer break. I will get some fresh air and try to come back stronger.”
Stefan Bradl – P13
“It’s been a tough race, but I’m pleased to have scored points; that was unexpected. LCR deserves them, and I’m pleased to have contributed. I tried my best during the race, despite it being not easy. I want to thank the team for their job and effort this weekend”.
Jonas Folger – P14
“I’m happy with the race and happy with the step I have made and how the guys have worked with me in the last six races. I want to thank the team for their understanding of my situation and for always keeping calm, no matter where we were and how we were doing. I enjoyed working a lot with these guys. It was a pleasure to come back and live some old memories. I think we did a great job today and now I’m looking forward to taking everything I have learned into my testing program.”
Jack Miller – DNF
“There’s no other way to say it, I’m happy with bugger-all today to be honest. Just pissed off with what might have been. But it doesn’t take away from how the first half of my first season at KTM has gone, because it’s been unreal.
“The race … I mean, that’s not exactly the way I wanted to celebrate my 200th Grand Prix start. I wanted more than one lap! I got a decent start and put the move on ‘Vinny’ (Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales) into the last corner, and he came back at me at Turn 1 and I thought he was going wide, so I tried to cut back under … I asked a little bit too much of the front-end and away she went. I held a couple of degrees more lean angle at the apex to square it up … I was just trying to slice and dice at that point in time, and it wasn’t to be.
“It’s hard to know what might have been possible today – I’m not going to be one of those guys who sits here and says ‘I would have done this’ or ‘I would have done that’. But we definitely found something in the Sunday morning warm-up that had me optimistic, because Saturday … that was a struggle. A bit of a disaster to be honest, I had some big vibrations in qualy and we were trying to understand what was causing that, and after feeling really comfortable on Friday I was half a second slower in qualy, so 12th was where I ended up. It affected my confidence and that translated over to the sprint race. You only have to be a little bit off these days – on a bad day we were 11 seconds off the front on Saturday, but that was out of the points. It’s so tight, so every little thing counts.
“Sunday morning, I was able to get more comfortable on the bike. I felt confident on the first lap of the race and like it was business as usual, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.
“I was gutted for (team-mate) Brad (Binder) today too – he rode a mega race, especially on that soft tyre. We knew it was going to be a bit of a gamble but he made it work. So, for him to lose a podium for track limits in the same corner on the last lap two days in a row … the rules are the rules but it was devastating, we were all celebrating and clapping in the box before we realised what had happened.
“It’s a bit of a shit way to end the first part of the year, but like I said before, it’s been an unreal start to my time here at KTM. We’ve had a bike fighting there every weekend, whether that’s myself, Brad or even (GasGas rider) Augusto (Fernandez). I’ve had two sprint race podiums and a main race podium and we’ve been challenging the majority of the time. We definitely can be very happy with what the bike is doing, and it feels like KTM is definitely on the right path.
“Ducati are at the top at the moment, but they’ve been through the ringer in the past 12 years, they didn’t get there overnight. They worked and they pulled themselves out of what was really a dire situation. When I jumped to Ducati back in 2018, it wasn’t the top bike in the championship. It was getting better and I could see there were some great engineers involved in the project, and I saw the same thing here with KTM.
“They have some great engineers here and some great backing from the manufacturer, and I came across with my knowledge. With that and the help of a lot of guys around me, we’ve been able to elevate the bike into what is a really competitive package this season, and it’s only going to get stronger. If you’d said last year when I signed for KTM that we would be in this position now, the majority of people would have probably been laughing if you’d said that we’d be the only ones at this point really challenging the Ducatis. But we’re working extremely hard and keeping the right mindset, the right attitude.
“After three races in three weeks, it’s time we had a break I think! It’ll be good to take some time out, and then we’ll come back to Silverstone with full force, recharged and ready for the back-half of the season.”
Fabio Quartararo – DNF
“I crashed and I twisted my elbow, so I have to keep it in a sling for the time being. These things happen. The elbow won‘t take so long to heal. The foot will have to be checked further. Normally I would have to have surgery on the toe. I will be in a little bit of pain for a few weeks. I made a mistake at the start. Sometimes you want to do things too perfect. I didn‘t want just a normal start, I wanted perfect, but then I got a totally bad start. So I lost a lot of positions. Then I tried to ride like this morning and catch them, but I lost the front. Right now, it‘s pretty painful. But if you take out of consideration what I have going on now on the left side of my body, it was a positive weekend: great qualifying, great sprint race, great speed. I take this as a positive weekend. Even though I‘m injured, I have ridden at my best level.”
Enea Bastianini – DNF
“I could have done without this before the break, we were having a good race; maybe I could have made up some more places, but unfortunately the front closed in on me at turn 5. This weekend we had a lot of ups and downs, but what counts is that we are doing well in the races, yesterday I had a good race and today I took another step. I think I could have gotten a good result because my sensations were good, only that I’m still lacking corner turn-in, when I try to do a bit more the bike closes in. The ’23 bike behaves differently from last year’s, we still need to adjust, but I think that during this weekend we made some important changes; my setup from last year unfortunately didn’t work so we had to start from scratch. Now I’m going on vacation, with a bit of a bad taste in the mouth because of the result!”
Maverick Vinales – DNF
“This is a weekend that leaves me happy, even with the race. I really started strong and braked extremely well at the first turn. I felt really strong on the bike, which was working quite well, so I pushed hard. I crashed because I lost the front end and that can happen if you decide to really have a go. Anyway, it’s all good. We need to continue looking for the limits, pushing the bike to the max, and this can happen. Our potential is clear and when we are able to exploit it, we can battle for the very top spots.”
Miguel Oliveira – DNF
“I had a good start in today’s race, I recovered a few positions and was close to P5. But I was already struggling a lot, the bike had a few issues that forced it to be unpredictable on the brakes. So, after a couple of laps, it was really hard for me to just keep going even if I was slower. It is very frustrating and a shame, because we wanted to go into the summer break with a decent result, at least in the points, which today was possible to even make some good points. Anyway, we need to look at these three races as a bonus since I am not 100% and still in recovery, this was already a victory that I could get more time with the team to get to know each other better and make a couple of Sunday races which was good. Also, we collected information for myself and the team and now it’s time to recalibrate for the second half of the season.”
Fabio Di Giannantonio – DNF
“Too bad really, because we were having a great race, a bit like in Germany. It’s clear that we must improve at the start as we lose too much ground but we’re improving in every race and this time we could have battled for the seventh-eighth position easily. The crash shouldn’t have happened, but with such a performance we’re going on holiday with a smile.”
Iker Lecuona – DNF (Technical)
“From Jerez to here was a big improvement in how I felt with the bike. Overall we have had a great weekend, constantly getting faster and improving each time we left the garage. The race we were having today was really good, I was careful at the start and avoided any problems. After this I was able to settle into my own pace and I was able to put my best on track, my confidence was growing with each lap and I was feeling really good. Finally, I was fighting for the top ten and it felt great to be there. I want to thank the entire Repsol Honda Team for their work this weekend.”
Marc Marquez – DNS
“We arrived here in a difficult condition and it only worsened as the weekend went on. Last night I suffered a lot trying to sleep, when I woke up the pain was very high and I went straight to the medical center. Checks revealed the break in the rib had shifted so we had to miss the race. Now is the time to rest and recover and come back after the summer break fit and ready to keep working.”
Team Managers
Luigi Dall’Igna – Direttore Generale di Ducati Corse
“I have to say honestly that it was wonderful race. A complicated weekend that didn’t start in the best way on Friday morning so overall we did a good job trying to straighten it out. It was difficult also in terms of tyre life, because today the conditions were difficult and almost unpredictable here at Assen with this heat, so we worked hard to find the consistency of the tyres. Thanks to everyone, they did a wonderful job. It was clearly excellent for Pecco but in my opinion extremely positive also for Bastianini despite the crash, because in any case yesterday during the sprint race and again today he was showing a good pace. We should remember that he is virtually at the beginning of the world championship while everyone else is in the middle of the season and kilometres clearly count for a lot.”
Pablo Nieto – VR46 Team Manager
“An incredibly solid weekend for Marco who was competitive in all sessions and made the difference in the race. A first part of the season above all our expectations and which makes us proud of him and of the whole technical group. A special emotion to hit all these goals on this track that he has always loved. Luca has struggled more, but he ends another weekend with two very important placements and a great job from the whole Team. Now let’s recharge the batteries and get back on track even more motivated at Silverstone to aim for the best result also in the Team standings.”
Francesco Guidotti – Red Bull KTM Team Manager
“A great race today from Brad. He made an incredible job: leading, 2nd from mid-distance and always in the top three. He managed the lap-times and the rear tyre and unfortunately he touched the green on the last lap. It’s painful to lose the podium again. We paid the same bill at the same corner! It’s something we have to learn for next year. Overall though it was a positive weekend because of our competitiveness. Unfortunately, Jack did not finish the race. He was trying to make a pass with a different line and maybe lacked front grip for that. Anyway, he had recovered his feeling with the bike and that was a decent step. The first part of the season is done and the balance is positive with the riders, the bikes and the team. Everything is under control and now we’re looking forward to Silverstone with confidence.”
Massimo Meregalli – Monster Yamaha Team Director
“Today was a Race to forget. Unfortunately, the race started badly and finished even worse for Fabio. But luckily he didn‘t get injured badly in the crash in Turn 6. He will use the five weeks off to recover from his big toe fracture and the contusion he suffered on the left elbow and hand today. Franky was feeling quite confident after this morning‘s Warm Up thanks to the setting he tried, but the conditions of the race were drastically different. He suffered from a lack of grip. He tried to manage the situation and finished in ninth place whilst avoiding to make mistakes.”
Nicolas Goyon – GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 Team Manager
“We can finally conclude this first half of the season with a strong result for the GASGAS team. Both of our riders are in the points, which is a good achievement. The race conditions were tricky and it was quite easy to make a mistake: we saw a lot of riders on the ground. Even though Augusto struggled to find his pace he fought to stay on the wheels of the others and made another top ten. Jonas battled as well and that was positive. Congratulations to both of them. Augusto has scored points in every single round and this is strong. I hope everyone will enjoy some free-time now in this summer break and I’m sure we have everything in our hands to come back even stronger from Silverstone.”
Razlan Razali – CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team Principal
“It’s not the best weekend for both riders. As much as it’s a weekend without any incident so that they can go into the summer break without any health problems, but it’s something that we’d like to forget this weekend given the current position. I think we could have done a little bit better. Unfortunately, Miguel had some steering issues with the bike, he had an amazing start to be sixth in the first lap. Raul was building himself up really good until a mistake that puts him right at the back, but he recovered well to be twelfth. Like we said in the very beginning of the triple header, it’s more of a recovery phase for us and now we will go back, recuperate, regroup and recover for Miguel to be 100% ready for Silverstone and we try to turn around our season then.”
Wilco Zeelenberg – CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team Manager
“It’s a very hot Assen, the hottest day here in Holland. It was a difficult weekend, the boys struggled to get around this race track especially in the fast parts. Miguel actually was very strong in the slower parts, but in the fast parts, the bike was shaking a lot, the brake pads went away so he did not have the brakes for a couple of laps and he decided to come in as it was too dangerous to continue in his view. He had a good start of course in sixth, but he couldn’t keep up. Raul had a big moment in turn 11, he nearly crashed but he was able to get through the grass and get back on track again. He did some decent and good lap times and finally got P12. I think it’s recovery time for five weeks for the team and especially for the riders, with all that injuries, they need to strengthen up.”
MotoGP Race Results
| Pos | Rider | Bike | Time/Gap |
| 1 | Francesco BAGNAIA | DUCATI | 40m37.640 |
| 2 | Marco BEZZECCHI | DUCATI | +1.223 |
| 3 | Aleix ESPARGARO | APRILIA | +1.925 |
| 4 | Brad BINDER | KTM | +1.528 |
| 5 | Jorge MARTIN | DUCATI | +1.934 |
| 6 | Alex MARQUEZ | DUCATI | +12.437 |
| 7 | Luca MARINI | DUCATI | +14.174 |
| 8 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | HONDA | +14.616 |
| 9 | Franco MORBIDELLI | YAMAHA | +29.335 |
| 10 | Augusto FERNANDEZ | KTM | +33.736 |
| 11 | Lorenzo SAVADORI | APRILIA | +35.084 |
| 12 | Raul FERNANDEZ | APRILIA | +39.622 |
| 13 | Stefan BRADL | HONDA | +42.504 |
| 14 | Jonas FOLGER | KTM | +45.609 |
| Not Classified | |||
| DNF | Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO | DUCATI | 8 laps |
| DNF | Iker LECUONA | HONDA | 12 laps |
| DNF | Miguel OLIVEIRA | APRILIA | 14 laps |
| DNF | Enea BASTIANINI | DUCATI | 20 laps |
| DNF | Maverick VIÑALES | APRILIA | 23 laps |
| DNF | Fabio QUARTARARO | YAMAHA | 24 laps |
| DNF | Johann ZARCO | DUCATI | 24 laps |
| DNF | Jack MILLER | KTM | 25 laps |
Max Speeds Accross Race Weekend
| Pos | Rider | Bike | Speed |
| 1 | Enea BASTIANINI | DUCATI | 319.5 |
| 2 | Jorge MARTIN | DUCATI | 317.9 |
| 3 | Maverick VIÑALES | APRILIA | 315.4 |
| 4 | Luca MARINI | DUCATI | 314.6 |
| 5 | Marco BEZZECCHI | DUCATI | 314.6 |
| 6 | Aleix ESPARGARO | APRILIA | 313.8 |
| 7 | Alex MARQUEZ | DUCATI | 313.8 |
| 8 | Johann ZARCO | DUCATI | 313.0 |
| 9 | Francesco BAGNAIA | DUCATI | 313.0 |
| 10 | Brad BINDER | KTM | 312.2 |
| 11 | Jack MILLER | KTM | 312.2 |
| 12 | Lorenzo SAVADORI | APRILIA | 311.4 |
| 13 | Raul FERNANDEZ | APRILIA | 311.4 |
| 14 | Miguel OLIVEIRA | APRILIA | 311.4 |
| 15 | Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO | DUCATI | 310.6 |
| 16 | Marc MARQUEZ | HONDA | 310.6 |
| 17 | Franco MORBIDELLI | YAMAHA | 309.8 |
| 18 | Fabio QUARTARARO | YAMAHA | 309.8 |
| 19 | Augusto FERNANDEZ | KTM | 309.8 |
| 20 | Iker LECUONA | HONDA | 309.0 |
| 21 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | HONDA | 308.3 |
| 22 | Stefan BRADL | HONDA | 307.5 |
| 23 | Jonas FOLGER | KTM | 306.0 |
MotoGP Championship Points
| Pos | Rider | Bike | Points |
| 1 | Francesco Bagnaia | Ducati | 194 |
| 2 | Jorge Martin | Ducati | 159 |
| 3 | Marco Bezzecchi | Ducati | 158 |
| 4 | Brad Binder | KTM | 114 |
| 5 | Johann Zarco | Ducati | 109 |
| 6 | Luca Marini | Ducati | 98 |
| 7 | Jack Miller | KTM | 79 |
| 8 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia | 77 |
| 9 | Fabio Quartararo | Yamaha | 64 |
| 10 | Alex Marquez | Ducati | 63 |
| 11 | Franco Morbidelli | Yamaha | 57 |
| 12 | Maverick Viñales | Aprilia | 56 |
| 13 | Alex Rins | Honda | 47 |
| 14 | Augusto Fernandez | KTM | 42 |
| 15 | Fabio Di Giannantonio | Ducati | 34 |
| 16 | Takaaki Nakagami | Honda | 34 |
| 17 | Miguel Oliveira | Aprilia | 27 |
| 18 | Enea Bastianini | Ducati | 18 |
| 19 | Marc Marquez | Honda | 15 |
| 20 | Dani Pedrosa | KTM | 13 |
| 21 | Lorenzo Savadori | Aprilia | 9 |
| 22 | Jonas Folger | KTM | 9 |
| 23 | Raul Fernandez | Aprilia | 8 |
| 24 | Michele Pirro | Ducati | 5 |
| 25 | Danilo Petrucci | Ducati | 5 |
| 26 | Joan Mir | Honda | 5 |
| 27 | Stefan Bradl | Honda | 5 |
| 28 | Iker Lecuona | Honda | 0 |
2023 MotoGP Calendar
| Rnd | Date | Location |
| 9 | Jul-09 | Kazakhstan, Sokol (Subject to homologation) |
| 10 | Aug-06 | Great Britain, Silverstone |
| 11 | Aug-20 | Austria, Red Bull Ring |
| 12 | Sep-03 | Catalunya, Catalunya |
| 13 | Sep-10 | San Marino, Misano |
| 14 | Sep-24 | India, Buddh (Subject to homologation) |
| 15 | Oct-01 | Japan, Motegi |
| 16 | Oct-15 | Indonesia, Mandalika |
| 17 | Oct-22 | Australia, Phillip Island |
| 18 | Oct-29 | Thailand, Chang |
| 19 | Nov-12 | Malaysia, Sepang |
| 20 | Nov-19 | Qatar, Lusail |
| 21 | Nov-26 | Valenciana, Valencia |
