Round 4 of the MotoGP season takes place at Le Mans Circuit Bugatti for the 2023 French Grand Prix. Built in 1965 the venue has hosted Grand Prix since the late sixties. Le Mans is a close quarters action filled track. It has multiple first gear corners that place the emphasis on late braking and hard acceleration on the long straights. The course is a 2.6 mile circuit featuring 14 turns. The longest straight is 2100+ feet long which allows riders to reach maximum speeds as they head into braking zones.
The race runs 27 laps and current championship leader Francesco Bagnaia is the current lap record holder setting a 1:31.778. This weekend will mark the 1000th Grand Prix in MotoGP. This weekend Marc Marquez (Team HRC) will return to the grid with a healthy teammate Joan Mir (Team HRC). This is his first appearance since the Portugal Grand Prix incident that led to injury.
Whispers in the Paddock
The riders are set to have an FIM safety meeting Friday morning to discuss certain incidents thus far in the season. There is a sentiment in the paddock that certain rules are not being applied equally amongst all riders. One such rider is Fabio Quartararo. He stated to motorsport.com, “We know that we are not agreeing with the decisions they are making all the time and that we always say it doesn’t seem equal between all the riders. That’s why we will try to have maybe some other guys that cannot get more disturbed by the popularity of the riders to be more equal.”
Championship leading rider Francesco Bagnaia also interviewed with motorsport.com and stated, “I really hope to have the possibility to understand their point of view and to share our point of view,” Bagnaia said when asked by Motorsport.com what he hoped to gain from this meeting. “This one could be already a good step, because in this moment, personally I’m not understanding their point of view.”
We will report on the outcome of the meeting if there are any conversations of note. In the mean time you can check your local streaming providers for access to race weekend content. Race coverage is available via NBC but it will not be streamed live. Sunday’s race is set to beginning at 8:00am EST on Sunday.