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Like them or lump them, sprint races are here to stay in MotoGP . Their introduction may have been sudden and overwhelming, but the primary aim of them was to get more people interested in the series. And a look at the trackside figures for 2023 reveals that was definitely the case. Of the 20 rounds run in 2023, 15 events showed an uptick in Saturday attendance compared to 2022. Of the rest, Austin's figures are not available, India was a first-time event, Indonesia and Argentina dipped slightly, while Australia’s schedule was altered due to the weather, meaning the GP ran on Saturday. Overall, 16 events topped their 2022 figures. There are some caveats to this that must be factored in. The 2022 season was still very much in the throes of the COVID hangover, and so some events were likely to have been affected by that. The French GP saw an all-time attendance record of 278,805 last year. But France has two immensely popular riders and Claude Michy’...

Martin came from sixth on the grid to score his ninth sprint win of the 2023 season. With title rival Francesco Bagnaia only fifth after struggling on his medium rear tyre, Martin has cut the championship deficit down from 21 points to 14 ahead of Sunday's grand prix finale. When asked by Motorsport.com if this was the ride of a champion, Martin said: "No, no, I don't think so. "I think I did an amazing job and I had big balls today because my feeling was so bad with the front, with the rear. "But I pushed to the limit every corner to fight for that victory, so that's what I was so, so happy. "I need to be happy about the result again and be proud about our job, because tomorrow we don't know what's going to happen." Explaining why he felt bad on the bike, Martin said: "I think I was riding alone all morning, so I was feeling I could manage to understand how to ride, being really smooth with the ty...

The championship leader’s points lead has been cut from 27 to 18 by Pramac’s Jorge Martin, after the Spaniard romped to his seventh sprint win of the year as Bagnaia was 4.1 seconds adrift in seventh. Bagnaia qualified sixth and says he “missed the start”, which dropped him to ninth on the opening lap before being quickly cast adrift of the podium battle . He moved up to seventh at the end of the fourth tour after Alex Marquez and Zarco went wide at Turn 12 battling each other, but wasn’t then able to advance on this position despite closing to within a tenth of Marco Bezzecchi at the finish. Bagnaia says he felt strong on his bike, but the “useless” Zarco/Marquez battle cost him too much time and cut him off from the podium group ahead. “I missed the start a bit, and then I lost a lot of time with Zarco,” Bagnaia said. “And then with the battle with Johann and Alex Marquez, that in that moment was useless considering the amount of time we had lost...

Pramac Ducati rider Martin overhauled poleman and championship leader Francesco Bagnaia on lap four of 13 and instantly put eight tenths between them. As Bagnaia squabbled with Marc Marquez, Martin eased into the distance and took the chequered flag 1.8 seconds clear of KTM’s Brad Binder. Bagnaia completed the podium after fending off VR46’s Luca Marini, with Marquez fifth on his racing return. Off the line, Bagnaia got his factory Ducati into the Dunlop chicane first ahead of Martin, Jack Miller, Marini and Marquez – who slumped from second on the grid. Marquez quickly disposed of Marini into Turn 7 to move up to fourth as the leading five quickly pulled away from the chasing pack. Miller crashed out of the race on lap two when he lost the front of his KTM at Turn 7, promoting Marquez up to third. At the same time, Binder put a hard move on Marini into Turn 8 to take fourth away from the Italian. Martin kept Bagnaia at arm’s length at the front and on lap four made his de...