Surprise MotoGP title contender Alex Rins believes the issues that held his Suzuki team back in last weekend’s French Grand Prix are largely specific to the Le Mans track. A 10th-place finish mirrored Rins’ French GP from the previous year, but also snapped an 11-race streak of top-six finishes. That meant the Austin winner fell

MotoGP rookie Fabio Quartararo has revealed that he turned his bike engine settings into qualifying mode during the French Grand Prix in a bid to recover from a poor start. Quartararo had been one of the quickest drivers in the build-up to the race, topping the first practice session and the warm-up before gambling on

Honda MotoGP rider Jorge Lorenzo feels being able to compete with the satellite LCR bikes at Le Mans demonstrated his progress, even if his result was not a major improvement. Lorenzo finished Sunday’s race 15 seconds behind race-winning team-mate Marc Marquez in 11th, which was one position better than his previous best result with Honda.

Pramac Ducati MotoGP rider Jack Miller says he fell out of the French Grand Prix podium positions because he “got carried away” racing Marc Marquez and damaged his tyres. Miller started on the front row in third place after Saturday’s wet/dry qualifying at Le Mans and twice managed to pass reigning champion Marquez’s Honda in

Andrea Dovizioso says he had no qualms about his Ducati MotoGP team allowing Danilo Petrucci to fight him at Le Mans instead of deploying team orders like “in Formula 1”. Dovizioso was running second behind eventual race winner Marc Marquez in the late stages of the French Grand Prix, but came under pressure from team-mate

Danilo Petrucci was “very, very scared” of hitting his Ducati MotoGP team-mate Andrea Dovizioso while attacking him for second in the French Grand Prix at Le Mans. Dovizioso had to defend from Petrucci in the late stages of the race, with the latter making a couple of attempts to pass and even briefly edging ahead

Reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez eased to his third victory of the campaign at Le Mans, extending his lead in the championship. Marquez, who had lined up on pole, fought off the Ducatis of Danilo Petrucci and Jack Miller early on before assuming full control of the race and cruising to his second successive Le

Le Mans MotoGP pole-sitter Marc Marquez said that his qualifying crash was a consequence of his strategy, as he fell on the lap where he went all-in. Due to rain ramping up, track conditions during qualifying gradually got worse, meaning the early laps in the session proved decisive in the pole battle. Marquez recorded what

Aleix Espargaro says he “applauds” MotoGP rival Valentino Rossi for the bold strategy that allowed Rossi to advance from the first segment of qualifying at Le Mans. Rossi was the only rider among 12 Q1 participants to equip slick tyres for his first run, judging conditions perfectly to put himself out of reach in the

LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow says MotoGP riders would overwhelmingly back a change to the “stupid rule” that awards spots in Q2 on the basis of combined times from practice. The 10 riders who set the fastest laptimes across the three first practice sessions of a MotoGP weekend are awarded byes into the pole shoot-out,

KTM MotoGP rider Johann Zarco reckons he could have been in the mix for pole position at Le Mans if not for a strategy mistake in Q1. In mixed conditions, Zarco started the first part of qualifying on wet tyres but, like many of his rivals, he pitted for slicks when he saw Valentino Rossi’s

Reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez secured pole position for the French Grand Prix at Le Mans, despite crashing his Honda immediately after his fastest lap. Marquez set his reference lap of 1m40.952s on wet tyres at the very start of Q2, when the damp track surface was at it best, just as the ever-present light

Maverick Vinales set the pace in a wet third MotoGP practice at Le Mans, as championship protagonists Valentino Rossi and Alex Rins were among those consigned to a Q1 appearance. Rossi and Rins had been left outside of the combined classification top 10 on Friday, and light rain falling on the circuit ahead of Saturday

Honda rider Jorge Lorenzo says his improved MotoGP form in practice at Le Mans felt like a “small victory” as a change to his bike’s seat paid off. Lorenzo, whose first season as a Honda rider reached an early nadir with a poor showing last time out at Jerez, ended Friday practice at Le Mans

Ducati MotoGP rider Andrea Dovizioso admitted his riding was “too aggressive” in Friday practice for the French Grand Prix at Le Mans. Dovizioso was in the top five in both sessions, ending the day fifth fastest overall, and was confident that he will be in podium and victory contention on Sunday. But he said he

Maverick Vinales topped a crash-filled Friday afternoon MotoGP practice for the French Grand Prix at Le Mans as Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi was left facing a possible Q1 appearance again. Championship leader Marc Marquez led most of the session but his 1m32.2s efforts at the time were slower than Fabio Quartararo’s morning benchmark, before times

Petronas SRT Yamaha rookie Fabio Quartararo was quickest in the first practice session ahead of his home MotoGP race at Le Mans. Quartararo, who had become MotoGP’s youngest-ever poleman last time out at Jerez, was the only rider to dip below 1m32s in Friday morning practice, using a pair of fresh soft tyres to lead

Pramac Ducati MotoGP rider Jack Miller has revealed Aleix Espargaro confronted him after their collision in the Spanish Grand Prix, saying the Spaniard told him he deserved to crash. Aprilia rider Espargaro and Miller were fighting for 10th place with three laps remaining when Espargaro made a move at the final corner. Miller wanted to

Johann Zarco says he accepts KTM MotoGP boss Stefan Pierer’s criticism of him following the Spanish Grand Prix earlier this month, admitting he “lost some control” at Jerez. Zarco’s Jerez weekend started poorly with two crashes on Friday, and an irate debrief from Zarco to his KTM engineering crew after one of his falls was

LCR rider Cal Crutchlow says he feels less comfortable with the current specification of the Honda MotoGP bike, which “feels nothing like” the 2018 version. While he has nine points fewer than at the same stage last year, Crutchlow has looked in solid enough form on the 2019-spec RC213V, scoring a podium in Qatar and

KTM CEO Stefan Pierer says his MotoGP team will never give up on its unique steel trellis frame concept, and has criticised Ducati for moving away from the design for 2012. The Austrian manufacturer is the only one on the MotoGP grid not use a conventional aluminium twin-spar chassis, and at the start of this

MotoGP’s newest winner Alex Rins’s “strongest point” is that he is under no pressure, according to reigning champion Marc Marquez. Rins, who has posted 11 consecutive top-six finishes in MotoGP and claimed his maiden win earlier this year at Austin, sits second in the current riders’ standings – just one point behind Honda rider Marquez.

Andrea Dovizioso has warned that finishing fourth in tracks like Jerez, which don’t suit Ducati’s bike, will not be enough to topple Marc Marquez in the 2019 MotoGP title fight. Dovizioso’s fourth-place finish at the Spanish Grand Prix extended his streak of no MotoGP podiums at Jerez to 12 consecutive years. Honda rider Marquez has

The factory Ducati MotoGP will not run its controversial ‘Mission Winnow’ branding in next weekend’s French Grand Prix at Le Mans. The Italian manufacturer follows in the footsteps of the Ferrari Formula 1 team – with which it shares the same title sponsor, Philip Morris International – scrapping the branding for the season-opening Australian Grand

Valentino Rossi says Fabio Quartararo’s star showing during MotoGP’s Jerez weekend was down to the rookie, stating Quartararo “made the difference” compared to his fellow Yamaha riders. Frenchman Quartararo led a one-two for new Yamaha satellite team Petronas SRT in qualifying, and was running second in the race when he retired with a gearshift load

KTM CEO Stefan Pierer has labelled new MotoGP signing Johann Zarco’s performance so far in the 2019 season as “simply unacceptable”, and suggested his current struggles are “psychological” in nature. Zarco, who was aggressively courted by KTM after impressing right away on the Tech3-run satellite Yamaha on his arrival to MotoGP, has been unable to

Silverstone has secured a one-year extension to its current MotoGP deal, following the announcement that the circuit will be resurfaced again, keeping the race until at least 2021. Plans for the resurfacing were first confirmed back in March, coming as the consequence of the cancellation of the British motorcycle Grand Prix at the venue last

Marc Marquez says the carbon-covered Honda bike he sampled in Monday’s post-Spanish Grand Prix felt “different” to his usual MotoGP machine. Fresh from winning the Jerez race on Sunday, Marquez tried the bike raced by HRC test rider Stefan Bradl, which features some carbon-coated chassis elements in a bid to save weight and gain flexibility.

Yamaha MotoGP rider Maverick Vinales says his Jerez podium, which felt “like a victory”, was all down to a rare strong start. The Spanish GP marked the first race in 2019 – and only the third race since the start of last year – at which Vinales gained a position on the opening lap, the

Record breaking MotoGP polesitter Fabio Quartararo set the fastest-ever MotoGP lap of Jerez in the post-Spanish Grand Prix collective test at the same circuit on Monday aboard his Petronas Yamaha. The 20-year-old rookie ended the day with a best effort of 1m36.379s, which was half a second quicker than the lap that had made him