[AtheK]

Originally Posted by ds.raikkonen

Still, losing our only race weekend is a big loss for motorsport fans in India, was really looking forward to see Marc on the Gresini

So this means MotoGP Bharat will surely kick start the 2025 season with fresh bikes and rider-team swaps, should be amazing given the decent weather in early March

True a loss, but I think a boon in greater good. If we get settled in March in the calendar, it could potentially be always a season opener in India. We might still see Marc in Gresini as I have a feeling it is Jorge heading to Factory Ducati, either way it will be even more fun if Marc debuts on Factory Ducati in India.

This also means that Pre-Season test actually might happen in India which will be awesome as that means more revenue.

[RM Motorsports]

Originally Posted by AtheK

A very good decision, it was so hot in September last year and riders were struggling along with the spectators. March would be a much better time to enjoy the race.

Actual reason to postponing race this year according to TOI is

Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) has said it may recommend blacklisting Fairstreet Sports – the Indian partner of MotoGP Bharat – because of its failure to clear dues worth more than Rs 30 crore to various companies that laid tracks and offered other services at Buddh International Circuit during the international racing event last year.

Pushkar Nath Srivastava, the Fairstreet COO, said the company had written to the state govt, seeking funds of Rs 21 crore to clear the dues.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/.../110512848.cms

[ds.raikkonen]

Originally Posted by AtheK

True a loss, but I think a boon in greater good. If we get settled in March in the calendar, it could potentially be always a season opener in India. We might still see Marc in Gresini as I have a feeling it is Jorge heading to Factory Ducati, either way it will be even more fun if Marc debuts on Factory Ducati in India.

This also means that Pre-Season test actually might happen in India which will be awesome as that means more revenue.

Yeah that is the most likely outcome of the Ducati factory seat musical chairs at the moment. Though I am not sure if the deterrent to a Marc factory Ducati seat is Red Bull, so should be with Jorge Martin as he too has their backing. Wonder how this energy drink sponsor battle will pan out.

As for pre-season test, I really hope they can pull it off, it will be amazing to have that before the season opener here. But I know its asking too much. Still even getting the opener will be a spectacle!

Originally Posted by RM Motorsports

Actual reason to postponing race this year according to TOI is

Pushkar Nath Srivastava, the Fairstreet COO, said the company had written to the state govt, seeking funds of Rs 21 crore to clear the dues.

I think the UP Govt will need to either find another organizing partner or else outsource this bit completely, else it might again become a hurdle in 2025

[Porschefire]

News Feed

Repsol to end Honda's MotoGP sponsorship deal after 2024

After 30 years together, Repsol will end their partnership with the Honda MotoGP team, bringing an end to one of MotoGP’s most famous partnerships between a sponsor and a manufacturer.

Repsol want to remain involved in MotoGP, however, promoting non-fossil fuels and they could sponsor one of the sustainable fuels that will be part of MotoGP’s future.

Honda have won 15 titles and 183 grand prix victories with Repsol as their loyal sponsor.


Source: https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/10...decision-honda

[Porschefire]

Originally Posted by AtheK

Nope, won't happen as the latest news is that MotoGP has been shifted from October to March 2025.

Bharat MotoGP to be Held in March 2025

Official: 2024 Indian MotoGP postponed to March 2025, Kazakhstan GP to take over the slot





Source: https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2024/...nfirmed/500099

https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2024/...to-2025/500093

[Porschefire]

News Feed

Jorge Martin admits first contact with Ducati, Marc Marquez denies Pramac option

Earlier today, Italian media had claimed that the negotiations had accelerated at the Ducati camp, in favour of Jorge Martin to become Pecco Bagnaia's team mate in 2025. Martin himself has confirmed that nothing is signed but Ducati has touched base with his team and suggests things could be heading in the right direction for him.

On the other hand, Marc Marquez, while acknowledging the fact that it is a great team, has ruled out the option of a move to Pramac. His only options to ride the GP25 next year is either move to the factory team or ride one at Gresini, should they get the option of one. But he has stressed the fact that he wants to ride for a factory team, to enable him to compete for the championship.

The Press Conferences today were quite interesting as from the body language of the riders, one could make an assumption of what the market is likely to be -

- Jorge Martin will move to Factory Ducati, replacing Enea Bastianini.
- Enea will likely move to Factory Aprilia, replacing Aleix Espargaro.
- Marc Marquez could also be an option for Aprilia but a move to KTM looks more likely. Will it be the the factory team or GasGas, could be anyone's guess. There are speculations that he could move to GasGas, with his brother Alex Marquez.
- Although denied by KTM boss Pit Beirer, Brad Binder could be moved to GasGas to make way for Marc Marquez to partner Pedro Acosta, as he has insisted on having a factory bike for 2025.
- Marc ruling out Pramac could mean Pramac switching to Yamaha machinery.
- Either Fabio Di Giannantonio or Marco Bezzecchi could move to factory Honda, replacing Joan Mir.


Source: https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/10...-after-mugello


Source: https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/10...-not-option-me


Source: https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/10...ave-preference


Source: https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/10...tory-bike-goal

[ashwin.terminat]

After being snubbed by Marc, Pramac has confirmed that they will continue with Ducati for 2025 - with two GP25 machines.

So if Marc were to remain within Ducati (Gresini), Ducati would need to build an additional latest spec factory bike. They've said before that maintaining more than 4 of their latest spec bikes is not possible. So either they will have to do so now or Marc will move to a different manufacturer (since he has maintained he wants the latest version of a bike). If that is the case, KTM, I presume will be the most likely destination.

[ds.raikkonen]

Originally Posted by ashwin.terminat

After being snubbed by Marc, Pramac has confirmed that they will continue with Ducati for 2025 - with two GP25 machines.

If Marc is staying at Gresini and Martin is joining the factory squad, why on Earth would Ducati want to give the GP25 to Pramac?! Is it to potentially support Bezzechi who might move there? The GP25s should go to Gresini, or at least one of them should. Is it possible?

[Porschefire]

Italian GP - Full Qualifying Results





- Jorge Martin takes pole at Ducati's home ground, beating home-boy Pecco Bagnaia by 0.043s. This is one of the many all time lap records set by Martin, so far this year.

- Pecco starts second on the grid for the sprint, but he will serve a three place penalty for obstructing Alex Marquez during the Practice session yesterday and start 5th in the race tomorrow.

- Maverick Vinales completes the front row with a good qualifying session. He had the pace to snatch pole but a highside meant he lost a bit of time. Nevertheless, the Aprilia looks fast in the corners while losing a bit on the straights.

- Marc Marquez was on a hot lap, almost quarter of second under Martin's time before he lost the front and crashed out. His previous time attack was good enough to qualify fourth and he'll start tomorrow's race on the front row in third.

- Franco Morbidelli topped the Q1 session by beating Pecco's 2023 lap record and qualifies 6th, behind Enea Bastianini.

- Alex Rins surprised everyone yesterday by entering Q2 directly by finishing second in the Practice session yesterday. He starts from tenth on the grid. His teammate Fabio Quartararo was not so fortunate, he starts from 15th.

- Once again, Pedro Acosta is the fastest KTM qualifying 7th while the others lost out on Q2 yesterday and failed to make any impact in Q1 today.

- Brad Binder set an all-time MotoGP top speed record of 227.5mph/366.1km/h during last year’s Mugello sprint race, which was matched by KTM wild-card Pol Espargaro on Friday.

[Porschefire]

News Feed

1) Acosta joins Red Bull KTM Factory Racing for 2025



Red Bull KTM Factory Racing will bring MotoGP starlet and two-time World Champion Pedro Acosta back into orange for 2025. A new 'multi-year' deal with the 20-year-old Grand Prix sensation equipped with a KTM RC16 for his fifth season at the highest level and second in MotoGP.

With current Red Bull KTM rider Brad Binder already signed until 2026, Acosta should slot in alongside the South African, at the expense of Jack Miller. Miller has said he is open to swapping places with Acosta and riding for Tech3, which also has factory-spec RC16s. But, with Ducati tipped to pick Jorge Martin as Francesco Bagnaia’s 2024 factory team-mate, speculation has been swirling that Marc Marquez may be considering KTM as his Plan-B.

Source: https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2024/...or-2025/500458

2) Rider Market

With Acosta's confirmation, the current rider market looks like this -

[Porschefire]

Italian GP - Sprint


The past, the present and the future in one frame.



- Pecco Bagnaia makes a rocket start to take the lead and finish first. Riding perfect laps, he made no error this time around and lays his Sprint demons to rest by taking the top step of the podium since Red Bull Ring in Austria, last year.

- Marc Marquez finishes second again. He didn't profit from his fourth position start but quickly passed Binder, Acosta and Martin to sit in second and put some pressure on Bagnaia during the last part of the Sprint.

- Pedro Acosta in third! A good way to start his KTM journey after having signed a multi year deal with the Austrian factory. Binder made a superb start from thirteenth to fourth but Acosta passed him in the long straight and quickly put a massive gap, indicating how strong that GasGas machine is.

- Franco Morbidelli has his best result of 2024, fourth.

- Jorge Martin lost a podium opportunity after he lost the front and slid into the gravel from third position, with 4 laps to go.

- Couple of crashes occurred during the race and both were deemed as racing incidents - 1) Similar to Marc and Pecco's incident in Portimao, Martin and Bastianini touched, sending the Italian out of the race. 2) Miguel Oliveira lost the front while overtaking Fabio Quartararo and crashed into him sending both out of the race.

[Porschefire]

Italian GP - Race





- Francesco Bagnaia completes a home Italian MotoGP win, claiming Ducati’s 93rd grand prix victory in the process. Starting from fifth on the grid, he made a brilliant start to take the lead early on and stay there for the entirety of the race. This a makes a perfect weekend for the reigning world champion, claiming the maximum of 37 points.

- Behind him, a late surge by team-mate Enea Bastianini saw ‘The Beast’ repass Marc Marquez for third, then snatch the runner-up spot from title leader Jorge Martin at the final corner making it Italian 1-2, on an Italian Factory bike, in Mugello, Italy.

- Jorge Martin sat in second behind Bagnaia for most part of the race and did come within half a second of him during the last part, with a possibility to fight for the win. Instead, he lost the gap he made and eventually conceded second place to Enea who, as always, found late race pace.

- A Marc Marquez victory would have extended the extraordinary pattern of Ducati’s 27th win being taken by #27 (Casey Stoner), 63rd by #63 (Bagnaia), 72nd by #72 (Marco Bezzecchi) and 89th by #89 (Jorge Martin). But instead, the Gresini rider was left off the grand prix rostrum in fourth, for the first time since crashing out of the lead at COTA.
Marc's Gresini Ducati was leaving puffs of tyre smoke out of the final corner, apparently caused by the ride-height device. Whether that contributed to his top speed disadvantage or if it was simply down to the older GP23 is unclear as yet.

- KTM rookie Pedro Acosta was the only non-Ducati in the top seven, with Fabio di Giannantonio demoting Vinales to eighth and finishing behind Franco Morbidelli in sixth.

- Testing gets underway at Mugello tomorrow, before the circus takes an unprecedented 3 weeks break (due to Kazakhstan GP postponement).

The World Championship standings after round seven:

[SVS_23]

Originally Posted by Porschefire

Jorge Martin sat in second behind Bagnaia for most part of the race and did come within half a second of him during the last part, with a possibility to fight for the win. Instead, he lost the gap he made and eventually conceded second place to Enea who, as always, found late race pace.

The last few laps were intense, with a sudden spurt of aggression from Martin. I was afraid that this race might end up like Le Mans, with Pecco losing the lead near the end. Luckily he stood his ground and proved that he is indeed the Mugello master!

[ashwin.terminat]

The silliest of silly seasons in recent memory!

Jorge Martin to join Aprilia.



And Marc Marquez will move to the factory Ducati team!



Apparently, Ducati offered the factory team contract to Jorge assuming they could convince Marc to take a seat at Pramac. But Marc openly rejecting Pramac on Saturday left them scrambling to make sure they don't lose Marc to a different manufacturer.

Source: https://www.autosport.com/motogp/new...urer/10619188/

That said, Marc did say he just wanted a latest spec machine next year - the colour didn't matter. I thought it alluded to him being okay with a seat at Pramac. I am guessing Ducati management thought the same. Marc took a risk openly rejecting Pramac but looks like it paid off.

[Porschefire]

Originally Posted by ashwin.terminat

The silliest of silly seasons in recent memory!

Jorge Martin to join Aprilia.

Attachment 2612405

Bombshell announcement!

Here's the confirmation from the Aprilia bossman himself -

https://www.instagram.com/p/C7wmlP4t...eo_watch_again


Source: https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2024/...in-2025/500764