MotoGP: Martin and Michelin's record-breaking Misano weekend

Aided by the performance and consistency of his Michelin tires, Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) enjoyed a perfect weekend at the Gran Premio Red Bull di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini at Misano. Round 12 of the 2023 MotoGP^TM World Championship's saw the Spaniard qualify on pole before claiming both Saturday's sprint and Sunday's grand prix. The MICHELIN Power Slick range provided further evidence of its potential by contributing to new track-lap, race-lap and shortest race-duration records for the venue.

Martin kicked off his grand-slam visit to Italy by lowering Maverick Viñales' previous lap record for Misano by seven-tenths of a second to 1m30.390s, before going on to claim both races.

After leading Saturday's 13-lap sprint from lights-out to the checkered flag, he got away to a splendid start for the weekend's showpiece on hard- and medium-compound MICHELIN Power Slicks front and rear. A series of consistently quick times during the race's second half, including his best of the day as late as the 17th of the 27 laps. The Spaniard ultimately crossed the line 1.350 seconds clear of Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR 46 Racing Team) after completing the distance almost 10 seconds faster than 2022's victor Francesco Bagnaia.

The latter was back in action just a week after his nasty accident in Catalonia and he celebrated by clocking Sunday's fastest lap (1m31.791s) and coming third in the two races. KTM test rider Dani Pedrosa (Red Bull KTM Racing Team) finished fourth, ahead of Viñales (Aprilia Racing).

In terms of tires, the hot weather saw the entire field - with the exception of Honda's riders - opt for a combination of hard and medium MICHELIN Power Slicks front and rear. Michelin's MotoGP^TM range proved competitive all weekend, with Bezzecchi beating the circuit's former benchmark time on Friday before it was lowered further by several riders during Saturday's qualifying. It ended up in the hands of Martin, while Bezzecchi and Bagnaia both bettered the previous race-lap record, and Martin completed the distance almost 10 seconds faster than any other winner before him!

Bagnaia continues to top the provisional championship standings on 286 points, but Martin and Bezzecchi are now just 36 and 65 units adrift respectively.

Also on the bill at Misano was the year's final FIM ENEL MotoE^TM World Championship gathering. Mattia Casadei won Race 1 to clinch the all-electric competition's first-ever world title, while his HP Pons Los40 team-mate Nicolas Spinelli claimed the second race. The Italian round concluded a season that had seen Michelin produce new, even better-performing and longer-lasting tires for the series' new electric Ducati. These tires contained 34 and 52 percent sustainable materials front and rear respectively.

Next race: Grand Prix of India, Buddh International Circuit (September 22-24).