An emphatic home podium place for Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) with Marc Marquez coming in third in the Motul Grand Prix of Japan at Motegi. The rain swept race saw the red flag coming on lap 13, with race officials erring on the side of caution to see if conditions improved.
However, this was not to be as it seemed conditions had cleared enough for a restart, but before riders could complete the warm up lap, the red flag brought out again and a race result was declared. As the Motegi Grand Prix had crossed half race distance with 13 of 24 laps completed, full points were awarded for the race.
At the end of the truncated Motegi race, Jorge Martin of Prima Pramac Racing took first place, with championship leader Francisco Bagnaia of Ducati Lenovo Team following behind in second. Marquez, despite many race fans writing him off for the season and news of his move to Gresini not helping matters, came in third in front of Honda’s home crowd.
After the fourteenth round of this year’s MotoGP season, Bagnaia stands on top of the rider’s championship with 319 points, followed by Martin just three points behind with 316 points. Rounding the top five riders are Marco Bezzecchi of Mooney VR46 Racing with 265 points, Brad Binder of Red Bull KTM Racing with 201 points and Alex Espagaro of Aprilia Racing with 171 points.
The MotoGP circus moves to Mandalika circuit in Indonesia the weekend of 13 to 15 October before heading south for the Australian Grand Prix at Philip Island on 20 to 22 October. The Thailand round of MotoGP happens at Buriram on 27 to 29 of October while Sepang International Circuit will host the Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix on 10 to 12 November.
The post 2023 MotoGP: Marquez wins third in rainy Motegi appeared first on Paul Tan's Automotive News.
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