Moto2

Another WorldSBK Silly Season Update: Bassani To Kawasaki, Rinaldi To Moto2?

By Steve English | Thu, 21/09/2023 - 19:06

The primary seats are now all spoken for in WorldSBK. Yesterday’s announcement that Michael van der Mark would partner Toprak Razgatlioglu at the official BMW Motorrad squad is likely to be followed very soon by confirmation from Kawasaki has tabbed Axel Bassani as Jonathan Rea’s replacement.

The only factory seats to be decided at the HRC squad. Their line-up is all but certain to remain as Xavi Vierge and Iker Lecuona, with both having signed Honda contracts already. The only delay on announcing their pairing for 2024 is that until Marc Marquez confirms his future, Honda wants to have the option to move Lecuona to the LCR squad in MotoGP. Lecuona would then replace Johann Zarco, who would be promoted into the Repsol Honda team.

As a result all five factories in WorldSBK have effectively penned their squads for next year. The confirmation that Scott Redding would move to the independent BMW of the Bonovo team was significant for a number of reasons. Redding was under contract but at the centre of plenty of speculation for next year. Kawasaki was an obvious target for him to replace the departing Rea, but ultimately with Kawasaki lasered in on Bassani, this option disappeared quickly.

2023 Misano Moto2 Practice 3 Result: Vietti Leads But Acosta’s Benchmark Stands

By Zara Daniela | Sat, 09/09/2023 - 08:14

Saturday got underway for the intermediate class with a new name at the top of the pile, Celestino Vietti taking the lead of the session with five minutes remaining, although the Italian could not go faster than Pedro Acosta’s benchmark from Friday. Aron Canet had a busy session, finding himself outside of the top 14 in the final five minutes of P3 but eventually made a big jump into second position.

2023 Barcelona Moto2 Practice 3 Result: Dixon Steps It Up 

By Zara Daniela | Sat, 02/09/2023 - 08:09

The intermediate class seemed to enjoy the surprisingly sunny conditions around Barcelona and consistently improved throughout their final practice session. With minor gaps within the field, the lead changed hands quite often towards the end of P3, until Jake Dixon gained an advantage of over four tenths of a second that had no match for the remaining couple of minutes. That demoted Aron Canet to second, with Ai Ogura third – Friday’s leader half a second off Dixon’s time. 

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