Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Suzuki racing an early version of its 2019 MotoGP bike in the Japanese Grand Prix was “massively important”, says its test rider Sylvain Guintoli. Guintoli made his third wildcard outing of the season at Motegi, using a 2019-spec engine as well as

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Australian rider Mike Jones will make his third MotoGP start in this weekend’s Phillip Island race, with the Angel Nieto Ducati squad replacing Alvaro Bautista. Jones will stand in for Bautista at his home grand prix, as he has stepped up to

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Marc Marquez clinched an incredible fifth MotoGP title this weekend in Japan. Oriol Puigdemont spoke to the Honda rider’s crew chief, Santi Hernandez, to understand what made him so strong again this year. At the start of the year, teams and riders

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Honda MotoGP team boss Alberto Puig admits the manufacturer has not consistently given newly-crowned champion Marc Marquez the equipment his talent “deserves” in 2018. Marquez came into last weekend’s Japan racex at Motegi with his first chance of wrapping up a fifth

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Valentino Rossi believes Suzuki’s MotoGP operation is now stronger than Yamaha, after finishing behind Alex Rins in last weekend’s race in Japan. Rossi repeated his Thailand result by finishing fourth at Motegi on Sunday, but was gifted two positions when Andrea Dovizioso

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. MotoGP champion Marc Marquez believes his pace “provoked” Andrea Dovizioso into crashing out of the title-deciding Japanese Grand Prix. Marquez sealed his fifth premier-class crown in six years with three races to spare by triumphing at Motegi, as Dovizioso fell at Turn

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Cal Crutchlow said he was “swearing in my helmet” during the Japanese Grand Prix, as race leader Andrea Dovizioso’s strategy allowed several riders to catch the leading group. Crutchlow spent the majority of the Motegi race grouped up with leader Dovizioso and

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Andrea Dovizioso says 2018 MotoGP champion Marc Marquez did “something special” during the Japanese Grand Prix, and also praised the Spaniard’s title-winning campaign. The fight for victory at Motegi turned into a duel between Dovizioso and Marquez, with the Ducati rider needing

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Marc Marquez secured his fifth MotoGP world championship with an eighth victory of the 2018 season in the Japanese Grand Prix as rival Andrea Dovizioso crashed. Honda rider Marquez started only sixth at Motegi, but carved his way up to second on

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Johann Zarco’s qualifying pace at Motegi shows that Yamaha is “paying” for making the wrong choice of MotoGP engine this year, according to Maverick Vinales. Tech 3 rider Zarco – using a two-year old Yamaha chassis and engine combination – qualified second

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Marc Marquez conceded that he lacked confidence on his second bike during MotoGP qualifying at Motegi, in the wake of a crash in FP4. The Honda rider has his first chance to clinch the 2018 crown this weekend, but his hopes of

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Andrea Dovizioso scored pole position for MotoGP’s Japanese Grand Prix in a typically frenetic qualifying shootout, while champion-elect Marc Marquez could manage no better than sixth. Ducati rider Dovizioso produced a scorching 1m44.590s lap in the dying moments of the 15-minute Q2

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Grand prix motorcycle racing legend Freddie Spencer has been named chairman of the FIM MotoGP stewards panel from the 2019 season. The 56-year-old effectively replaces Mike Webb in the role, with Webb currently combining his duties as head of the stewarding panel

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Maverick Vinales says Yamaha can conclude its step forward at Buriram was not just a one-off, after the opening day of MotoGP practice at Motegi produced a similar step forward. Vinales posted the fifth-fastest time of the first session in Japan on

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Honda rider Dani Pedrosa set the pace in second practice for MotoGP’s Japanese Grand Prix on a damp-but-drying Motegi track. Rain following the conclusion of a dry Friday morning session at Motegi meant just a handful of riders ventured out of the

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Andrea Dovizioso believes Ducati would be “stupid” to not sound out Marc Marquez over a possible switch to the MotoGP manufacturer in 2021. Marquez completed a new deal with Honda running to the end of the 2020 season earlier this year, and

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Cal Crutchlow says it is impossible to compare his career to that of World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea, after the latter claimed he could have done “better” in MotoGP. Rea recently told Autosport that he feels he could have enjoyed more success

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Jorge Lorenzo says he found his switch from Yamaha to Ducati at the start of last season harder than stepping up to MotoGP as a rookie. Three-time MotoGP champion Lorenzo was lured away from Yamaha by Ducati for 2017, but the partnership

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Takaaki Nakagami will remain with the LCR Honda MotoGP team for the 2019 season. Nakagami graduated from Moto2 to join an expanded two-bike LCR line-up in the premier class this year, racing a year-old Honda RC213V in the colours of long-time sponsor

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Four-time World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea says he can “do better” than Cal Crutchlow in MotoGP if offered the chance, but is not “jealous” of his fellow Briton. Rea is now statistically the greatest WSBK rider of all-time after clinching his fourth-straight

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Valentino Rossi has conceded that his MotoGP records are in danger if Marc Marquez continues his current form. Honda rider Marquez’s seventh win of 2018 in Thailand was his 42nd since he graduated to MotoGP in 2013, and puts him within touching

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Marc Marquez has revealed one of his targets is to make his riding style more “smooth” like his chief MotoGP rival Andrea Dovizioso. Last weekend’s Thailand Grand Prix was the fourth time in 14 months that Marquez and Dovizioso had engaged in

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. The driver involved in 2006 MotoGP world champion Nicky Hayden’s fatal cycling collision last year has been given a one-year suspended prison sentence. The 31-year-old driver, who was not named throughout the trial, was liable to a one- or two-year jail sentence

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Jorge Lorenzo admits he is “grateful” to MotoGP rival Marc Marquez for not standing in the way of his 2019 switch to Honda. Ducati rider Lorenzo shocked the MotoGP paddock in June when it was announced that he would pair up with

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Aleix Espargaro says he cannot tolerate another MotoGP season as bad as Aprilia’s 2018 campaign. After the boost of his surprise run to sixth at Aragon last month, Espargaro ended up 13th in last weekend’s Buriram race and crossed the line 21

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Tech3 Yamaha rider Johann Zarco says last weekend’s Thailand MotoGP race felt like his first “real race” for some time, after struggling for form in the preceding rounds. Zarco ended MotoGP’s first MotoGP race at Buriram fifth, less than three seconds behind

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Yamaha must not think it has solved its MotoGP problems after its most competitive showing for many races in Thailand, warns Valentino Rossi. After an insipid showing in Aragon, where Rossi was eighth and factory team-mate Maverick Vinales trailed home in 10th,

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Honda’s Dani Pedrosa believes he had the pace to turn around his unhappy final MotoGP season with a Thailand Grand Prix win had he not crashed out. Pedrosa, who will retire at the end of 2018, is enduring his worst season in

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. It appears that previous events mean Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales don’t trust the M1 improvements shown at Buriram, as the Yamaha bike is exactly the same as before. Leaving aside Jorge Lorenzo’s crash and his inability to race at the first

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Maverick Vinales said his bike behaved like a “normal Yamaha” again after finishing a close third in the inaugural Thailand Grand Prix at Buriram. Yamaha has been unable to capitalise on its historical strength in high-speed corners in recent times and has