The IndianOil India Grand Prix has etched its first winner into the record books. Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Racing) won the first ever Indian Grand Prix which shook up the championship race. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo) crashed out of the grand prix leaving the door wide open for Bezzecchi and current second place championship sitter Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) to take advantage. Due to Bagnaia not finishing the race. Martin is now only 13 points behind the championship lead. Bezzecchi is 44 points behind. With the win in India Bezzecchi showed the world that he isn’t done yet and that this championship fight is long from over.
As reported by Tribune India Bezzecchi stated the following after the race, “It’s a track that I liked the first time I rode on it. There was some hard braking, but also some fast parts and chicanes. Physically, I felt better with the head, so change of direction was not a problem. Sector three was really fantastic to ride.” Bezzecchi finished the race 8 seconds clear of Jorge Martin.
In a dramatic change of events Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) secured his first podium of teh 2023 campaign placing third. Quartararo stated the following after the race, “It was a tough race, to be honest. I gave everything. On acceleration on the straight we are losing so much, but my crew chief told me I did one of my best races, so I can sleep well tonight.”
Quartararo Continued
“What a race! We didn‘t make any mistakes. It was a great weekend overall. I‘m pretty happy about it, and hopefully we can do many more GPs like this this year. We have to be clever, and when we get small opportunities to get these kinds of results, we have to take it. We have to be happy with this podium. I was pushing until the end, but I felt I was so much on the limit with the tyre, so third was the best we could do this weekend.”
Brand Binder (KTM) finished 4th ahead of Joan Mir (Repsol Honda) who has needed a pick me up after some disappointing results in recent rounds. Mir was very pleased with the top 5 finish. “A great race today. I am super happy with our performance over the weekend and of course to finish in fifth position is a big boost for us.”
“The team and I did a great job to understand the bike more, how you need to make the lap time and be fast this weekend. On the other hand, we had a small thing in the end of the race that meant I lost ground to Fabio and we dropped back. Finally in the end we were able to push and try to catch Binder after I almost crashed. It was a big save! But yeah, a really nice race overall and I have enjoyed my time in India. Let’s keep it up in Japan!”
Full MotoGP IndianOil India Grand Prix Results are Below
Updated Championship Standings