A landmark season of the MotoGP World Championship awaits Joan Mir and Luca Marini, the young pairing ready to pilot their striking 2024 Repsol Honda Team RC213V machines across 21 rounds – starting under the floodlights of Qatar.

With an intense pre-season of testing behind them, the new-look Repsol Honda Team arrive at the start of the 75th anniversary year of the MotoGP World Championship prepared to work. Honda’s relationship with Grand Prix racing started in 1959 in the 125cc class, achieving a debut victory in the hands of Tom Phillis two years later before the iconic Jim Redman would take a first premier class win at the West German GP in 1996. Since those heady days, Honda have achieved 821 victories across all classes – 183 of those wins belonging to the Repsol Honda Team.

Honda’s factory effort will be guided by the hands of Joan Mir and Luca Marini for the 2024 season. Together they boast two World Championships, 18 wins and 50 podiums across the classes. The pair have been working closely with HRC’s engineers since the close of 2023 to prepare in the best way possible for the start of the newest campaign. A heavily revised Honda RC213V has been prepared with a number of further developments planned throughout the course of the year.

Joan Mir enters his second year with the Repsol Honda Team and has been reinvigorated by a positive start to testing in 2024. Able to consistently improve both his one lap and his overall race pace across each day in Sepang and Qatar, Mir is confident he can return to fighting towards the front. Continuing along this path of improvements will be the objective for Mir and his team, led by Santi Hernandez, as the new season begins. Mir achieved 14th in last year’s Qatar GP.

Luca Marini is the newest recruit to the Repsol Honda Team’s historic line up of riders, the 26-year-old Italian joining the factory team after three years of impressive progression in the premier class. Like his teammate, the objective for the weekened will be to make further improvements to himself and the Honda RC213V as he adapts to life on his new motorcycle. Signing off the end to a strong 2023 campaign, Marini secured pole for the 2023 edition of the Qatar race and holds the current lap record around the Lusail International Circuit.

The season will begin with Free Practice 1 at 15:45 Local Time on Friday, March 08 with the lights going out on the MotoGP Sprint Race at 19:00 Local Time on Saturday, March 09. Then the main event, the 22-lap Grand Prix of Qatar, is scheduled to begin at 20:00 Local Time on Sunday, March 10, as the curtain officially lifts on another thrilling season of MotoGP action.

KTM’s extensive presence and impact in the Moto3™ and Moto2™ categories of 2024 MotoGP™ will once more lie in the extremely capable hands of the Red Bull KTM Ajo squad this season. The team will again lead the KTM GP Academy project in both classes for the 21-round world championship.KTM have won two of the last four Moto3 world titles with the KTM RC4 and they have clinched the Moto2 world championship for three years in succession: 2021, 2022 and 2023. The prolific Red Bull KTM Ajo outfit have bagged four of these crowns and helped elevate no less than six riders onto the MotoGP grid and into factory teams.The quest for more silverware and the development of the current four-rider roster continues for 2024. Jose Antonio Rueda (18-years-old) and Xabi Zurutuza (18 in April and therefore not debuting until the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas and round three of the campaign. Vicente Perez will deputize in Qatar and Portugal) will run in Moto3. Rueda, the 2022 Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup Champion, ended his first Grand Prix season in 2023 with 9th place in the championship, and one podium finish (3rd place in Catalunya). Zurutuza is the bright new rookie on the scene and showed he has undoubted pace and potential with two FIM JuniorGP wins last year.Moto2 responsibilities fall to Celestino Vietti (22) for what will be the Italian star’s fourth term in the category and where he has already notched four victories, and incoming Turkish rookie Deniz Öncü (20) who makes the step up from two active and successful seasons in Moto3 where he managed to walk the top step of the rostrum three times.The foundation layers of the KTM GP Academy comes from high-quality feeder and ‘filtering’ series that allow the most promising youth prospects to compete, to learn and to standout. The provision of KTM machinery in these contests allows an early bond to form between the athlete, the technology and the ethos of the company. In 2024 many eyes will again be on the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup: a championship that involves seven rounds and fourteen outings and from which almost half of the current premier class grid has emerged.Another strong platform for pre-Grand Prix talent is the FIM JuniorGP championship that will roam across Italy, Portugal and Spain for seven fixtures between April and November. KTM RC4 R bikes will also be speeding around circuits in Germany and Austria for the ‘KTM Junior Cup powered by ADAC’: a championship that is also part of the ‘Road to MotoGP’ pyramid designed to empower the next generation of racer.

2024 MotoGP begins in a matter of days with the Qatar Airways Grand Prix of Qatar at the Lusail International Circuit from March 8-10. Red Bull KTM Ajo tasted Moto3 success at the venue in 2021 and Moto2 glory in 2020.

As the AMA Supercross series approached its midway point at the unique Daytona, Florida, round, Jett Lawrence put in a statement ride, making solid passes before pulling ahead to a convincing victory. Given the venue’s rich history and challenging track, Daytona wins are meaningful; this one was particularly impressive, as Jett earned it in his first year as a premier-class rider, indicating that he learned an important lesson following last week’s final-lap crash out of the lead in Arlington. The 20-year-old Australian also became the year’s first three-time winner, and he expanded his lead in the title chase to 10 points.

Following a tense moment before the start when there was a delay in the removal of his rear-tire cover, Jett was sixth out of turn 1, just behind brother and teammate Hunter Lawrence. When lap 1 was finished, Jett was up to third, where he stayed through lap 4. At that point, Lawrence used a quad jump through a rhythm section to move by Eli Tomac, then snuck by Chase Sexton in the following turn. From there, Jett went about establishing a cushion, running lap times a couple of seconds lower than his competitors. In the end, Jett won by nearly six seconds, though he led by more than 10 seconds at times. Phoenix Racing Honda rider Dylan Ferrandis ended the night eighth, while Hunter Lawrence suffered a hard fall early on and withdrew with a sore shoulder. (At the time this was published, Hunter was awaiting results of an MRI to determine the gravity of the injury.)

Hymas was just inside the top 10 off the 250SX East main-event start, then up to seventh by the end of lap 1. He moved up one position on each of the next two laps to assume fifth, but a fall and getting stuck on a Tuff Block dropped the Idaho native back in the pack, resulting in an eventual 15th-place result. Meanwhile, Fire Power Honda rider Max Anstie recovered from 10th after lap 1 to finish eighth, good enough to maintain a narrow lead in the championship battle.

Jett Lawrence  18

“It’s awesome to get a win here, especially to get it on my first attempt on a 450. Winning it how we did, with my tire cover still on as the gate was dropping, I was freaking out on the gate. I’m glad I was able to get a good start, calm myself down, and get back to racing. I’m super-pumped for the team on this one.”

450SX Results

1.    Jett Lawrence (Hon)

2.    Eli Tomac (Yam)

3.    Chase Sexton (KTM)

4.    Cooper Webb (Yam)

5.    Ken Roczen (Suz)

6.    Justin Cooper (Yam)

7.    Malcolm Stewart (Hus)

8.    Dylan Ferrandis (Hon)

9.    Jason Anderson (Kaw)

10.  Benny Bloss (Bet)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - A spectacular first win in the AMA Supercross Championship was earned by Tom Vialle at Daytona International Speedway tonight, the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 250SX East contender breaking through in challenging conditions at the world-famous venue. Round 8 also saw Chase Sexton finish on the podium, claiming third position in the 450SX Main Event.

Two-time MX2 World Champion Vialle moved to the U.S. full-time last season and raced to a first Supercross podium just one week ago in Arlington, now becoming a race winner onboard his KTM 250 SX-F FACTORY EDITION.The 23-year-old Frenchman qualified third fastest this afternoon and then was second in his Heat Race to keep the momentum going into the night program. Vialle was third at the conclusion of the opening lap of the Main Event and then took charge on lap five, going on to win by 4.997 seconds. As a result, he's moved to within three points of the series lead.

Tom Vialle: "It was nice to grab the win after having my first podium last week and now my first victory here in Daytona. The track was tough, but I actually feel good. I didn't have a great start, but I passed a lot of guys and it feels so good – it's amazing to win. I want to thank my team and everybody who works with me and supports me. It's amazing to race at Daytona and to get this result!"

MX2 Grand Prix winner Liam Everts will sit out the first round of the 2024 MXGP series at Neuquen in Argentina on March 9-10 to recover from an injury to his right thumb, sustained in a light training crash in Belgium this week.

The highly rated Red Bull KTM Factory Racing athlete suffered the fall while in prep for the first of twenty Grands Prix in the 2024 series and underwent an operation on Thursday to get the fracture set and plated. The 19-year-old requires a month of convalescence before he can get back on the KTM 250 SX-F and could be in contention for the second fixture of the year in late March.

Harry Norton, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager: “Tough news for Liam and the team but we all know these setbacks can happen. The operation went well and now we need that four-week period for him to feel strong and to get full use of his hand. Argentina is out, but we are hopeful that his recovery goes to plan and Liam can start his championship in Madrid.”

The riders of the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team close the pre-season in the slip stream of the fastest guys respectively in P8 and P10 

Doha (Qatar), February 20th 2024 – The curtain falls on the 2024 pre-season with the riders of the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team in the slip stream of the strongest guys and ready to take the track for the first race of the Championship in just a few weeks (Qatar GP, next March 8-10). Riding the Ducati Desmosedici GP, they both completed the last testing session in Qatar in the Top10 (Fabio P8 and Marco P10).

In the garage until 04.00 pm local time to make the most of the evening hours of the session, Fabio completed 60 laps and set a good 1:51.489, a lap time that means a gap of just half a second from the leaders (Bagnaia, 1:50.952). Protagonist at the end of the day of an excellent Sprint simulation, he finishes with a more than positive balance.

Convincing step forward and capable of improving right from the first laps, Marco signs a good 1:51.678 which means a gap of just seven tenths. Satisfied with the progress of these two days of work, today he completes 49 laps.

MotoGP moved from Asia to the Middle East and from Malaysia to Qatar for the second pre-season test of the 2024 campaign. Brad Binder logged the 9th fastest effort through the two seven-hour sessions across two days and Jack Miller was 11th quickest as Red Bull KTM registered almost 220 laps in their chase of the best set-up to enter the new calendar.

Promising outing for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing with both Brad Binder and Jack Miller under the lap record set in 2023 and more than a second faster than the best race time from last year

Brad Binder produces 106 laps, a time nearly two tenths of a second under the lap record and six tenths from P1 at the Qatar test

Jack Miller is just over a tenth of a second behind his teammate after 112 times around the flat, curving Losail layout

Round one of 2024 MotoGP will take place at the same venue for the Grand Prix of Qatar and where the team have scored 2nd and 5th position finishes in the last two editions of the race

KTM swapped heat, humidity and a sticky Sepang International Circuit for the evening lights, strong breeze and sandy, abrasive asphalt of the Lusail International Circuit as Qatar hosted the second and final pre-season test of 2024 MotoGP. Red Bull KTM Factory Racing joined their peers for a two-day run at the 5.4km course north of Doha, and the last chance to try parts and ideas and homologate configurations of the KTM RC16 for the campaign ahead.

Brad Binder and Jack Miller took profit of a track that gradually became cleaner throughout use on Monday to re-try technical directions with aerodynamics and other mods discovered in Malaysia two weeks previously. The second day provided a final bout of confirmation before work also addressed set-up for the forthcoming Grand Prix (with a view towards the 11-lap Sprint and 22-lap full distance event). A time attack ‘blast’ resulted with Binder in 9th and Miller a slither of a second behind in 11th.

Only 17 days separate the last laps of the test in Lusail until the first circulations of the Grand Prix of Qatar and the opening round of 21 in the 2024 MotoGP season. Red Bull KTM Factory Racing will get fast again when it counts on Friday March 8th to launch their eighth term on the premier class grid.

Brad Binder, 9th: “Today was pretty cool. We managed to squash everything in and tried a few settings as well as a full race simulation. I was unlucky to have two yellow flags on my time attack lap but other than that I was happy! I think our bike is working really well and we made a step from last season: we’ll see where we really are when we go again in two weeks.”

Jack Miller, 11th: “Positive last day here and I’m pretty happy where we are with the bike. I made a few setup changes today and I think we are in the right ballpark to get the season underway. I feel good and looking forward to getting back here to do it all for real. We still have a few little tweaks to make: motorbike racers are never totally happy! The conditions were tricky away from the racing line; if you make a mistake then it’s hard to come back off the dirty stuff. All-in-all it’s been a good pre-season and the boys have done a fantastic job through the winter with the improvements and I believe we have a very competitive bike to go racing.”

Francesco Guidotti, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager: “The riders were happy. We made a forward step compared to the last time we were here and that was clear with the lap-times. We still need a bit more though, but we are on the way. We are working and we can see the improvements. It’s been a good pre-season and the general pace has been under the lap record both times and we are also right there. We will be ready, and we have to deliver.”

Sebastian Risse, Red Bull KTM Technical Manager MotoGP: “We concluded our winter test program and we’re really happy with how it went. There was a lot of refining and confirming the conceptual work we did in Sepang. As usual here the conditions were tricky in the beginning because the track is dirty and the grip is low but having this test load in front of us was decent for us because we could keep calm and get through what we needed to. We are happy and confident with our package and then we had time to do some tuning and setup work with each rider and focus on race simulations and time attacks and so on. Looking back already, we had a good time here and we are confident for the first race now.”

Joan Mir and Luca Marini worked until the very end of the ultimate day of testing, the pair overcoming illness to produce the maximum amount of data for the Repsol Honda Team.

The Repsol Honda Team pairing of Joan Mir and Luca Marini showed their determination, working under the floodlights of the Lusail International Circuit to prepare for their upcoming campaign. A day of red flags made every lap important as the MotoGP grid continued to increase the pace in the build up to the season – a new unofficial circuit record being set in the process.

Joan Mir spent the final day battling illness, sapping his strength and limiting his time on the Repsol Honda Team RC213V machine. Completing 32 laps, Mir ends the Qatar Test in 19th. His best time, a 1’52.457 set on the second day, was 1.1 seconds faster than his Qualifying time from the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix just three months ago. Had his condition been better, Mir feels he could have lapped in the 1’51s. A fall at Turn 13 late in the evening ended Mir’s test somewhat prematurely but he was unharmed in the fall. Having made impressive progress already, the #36 was left somewhat disappointed at being unable to fully capitalise on the available time to find the remaining tenths. He will now return home to begin his final preparations for the start of the season.

Having recovered from his illness yesterday, Marini was back to full fitness and the final day of testing was another productive affair for Luca Marini as he completed 60 laps to bring his total from the two days in Qatar to 111 laps. Ending with a best time of 1’52.677, Marini ended the night just behind his teammate. Continuing to work through a number of items for HRC, Marini was left content with what he and the team achieved despite a truncated start to the second day. He remains focused on the work that still remains before the start of the season. Just days now separate the #10 from his first race as a factory Honda rider.

Now the attentions of riders and the entire team turn to the opening race of the 21-round MotoGP World Championship season, scheduled to start at the Lusail International Circuit on March 08 – 10. After Qatar, the season will see the Repsol Honda Team travel around the world as they battle against the 20 other riders on the grid.

Joan Mir  36

19th  1'52.457

“Today I woke up feeling very tired and in general not feeling great. After the first exit I was feeling really unwell and had to stop to try and recover some strength. I was able to rest and go back out on track but my condition was not 100% so we could only do a few things. Then on the last exit I had a fast crash which meant we couldn’t do the practice starts, so it was quite a complicated day. It would have been good to have this final day at our best, but we have been able to make good progress over the course of these tests. Now we turn our attention to the race and trying to take the maximum result from it.”

Luca Marini  10

20th  1'52.677

“This test has allowed us to understand many things and we were able to try everything that was on the list for us and for HRC. We made a big change on the bike today which lost us some time in the first hour. Even like this, we have been able to get a lot of data and we can prepare well for the GP. Each day I have been able to improve my feeling with the bike but we still need to do a bit of work to improve our performance over one lap.”

Team HRC has concluded its final winter test session at the Phillip Island Circuit in preparation for the inaugural round of the 2024 Superbike World Championship, taking place at the same Australian track on 23-25 February.

After a slow start following incidents for two riders during the first part of the morning’s session, factory riders Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge were gradually able to get into a rhythm and exploit the dry conditions as they worked to adapt their new-look CBR1000RR-R to the fast and flowing track.

Iker was making good progress until about an hour before the end of the morning’s session, when he suffered a fast crash at turn 11. Hitting the ground hard, the Spanish rider unfortunately injured his left shoulder (an acromioclavicular joint injury) and was therefore unable to continue with the day’s testing. Iker will be reassessed by the medical team prior to the race weekend.

Vierge was therefore the sole HRC representative during the afternoon session, during which he continued to work hard to optimize the bike setup, despite much warmer track conditions. The Team HRC riders and technicians will use today’s data and references to prepare for the first sessions of their 2024 WorldSBK campaign, which officially gets underway on Friday 23 February.

First day on track at Losail for Fabio Di Giannantonio, in P5, and Marco Bezzecchi in P11

Doha (Qatar), February 19th 2024 – The last official MotoGP test and, in fact, also the last act of the 2024 pre-season starts for the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team in Qatar where the Championship will start in less than three weeks ( March 8-10 next). The goal is clear: development and attention to detail with Fabio Di Giannantonio immediately among the fastest guys in the Top5 and Marco Bezzecchi currently 11th in the combined standings. 

On the track with a setup base very similar to the one used in Sepang, Fabio completed 41 laps and signed a good 1:52.467, a lap time that means a gap of just four tenths from the top guys (Bagnaia, 1:52.040).

Productive day also for Marco, still searching for the right balance of the basic setting of his Ducati Desmosedici GP. With one session to go tomorrow, he improves to 1:52.799 with 62 laps completed.