The inaugural edition of the 2023 MotoGP Bharat has come to an end, and what a race this was, not just for Marco Bezzecchi, but also for the viewers. Bezzecchi has won the 2023 MotoGP Bharat with a time of 36:59, ahead of Jorge Martin and Fabio Quaratararo. This is Bezzecchi’s third win of the 2023 season, having won the Argentine Grand Prix as well as the French Grand Prix previously.
Starting first on the grid, Bezzecchi maintained the lead. However, he faced significant pressure from Francesco Bagnaia of the Ducati Lenovo team. Bagnaia, the current leader of the championship, started from the third position on the grid. However, on the thirteenth lap, he somehow lost his footing and ended up crashing his factory Ducati, ultimately leading to his retirement from the race.
Prima Pramac’s Jorge Martin, who won the Sprint race yesterday, was seen battling it out for the second position against Fabio Quartararo. The Yamaha racer enjoyed the second spot for a brief moment before eventually getting overtaken by Martin, who pulled off a daring move around the outside of Quartararo. Even the smallest of contact could have been disastrous for both the riders.
There’s been some buzz around Marc Marquez lately, and while we aren’t going to talk about those right now, let’s take a look at what happened during the race. He suffered a crash on the sixth lap, causing him to drop down to the sixteenth position. However, he recovered quickly and made up for lost time, eventually ending in ninth position.
The 2023 MotoGP Bharat was shortened to 21 laps from 24, due to the hot and humid conditions at the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida. Aleix Espargaro and Raul Fernandez both spoke about the hot weather conditions before the race. Post the race, Martin was seen pouring bottles of cold water on himself, also requiring the attention of medics.
As of now, Bagnaia continues to sit on top of the table with 292 points. However, both Martin and Bezzecchi have moved up to 279 and 248 points respectively after this win.
Meanwhile, the Moto2 race had quite an eventful start with a crash pileup of multiple riders, therefore causing the race to be red-flagged and restarted. The race was eventually won by Pedro Acosta, followed by Tony Arbolino and Joe Roberts at second and third respectively.
Jaume Masia, Leopard Honda, won first place in Moto3. Kaito Toba of SIC58 Honda took the second position, and Ayumu Sasaki, Intact GP Husqvarna ended up winning third.
The next MotoGP race is in Japan, and we shall bring you more such updates, so stay tuned!
