Indian MotoGP 2023: Marco Bezzecchi Wins Inaugural Bharat GP

The 2023 championship witnesses a big swing as Mooney VR46 Racing’s Marco Bezzecchi wins the inaugural Bharat GP at the Buddh International Circuit. Bez remained uber cool in the sweltering Delhi heat to win the race comfortably from fellow championship rival Jorge Martin. Bez once again got pipped at the start by the Ducati GP23s of Martin and factory Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia. Nevertheless, he made the crucial moves right back on the opening lap itself, showcasing great race pace all throughout. Bez, running a medium/soft tyre set-up, just sped away with very little chance for anyone to even give him any form of trouble.

But the main talking point of the entire race happened right behind him as both Bagnaia and Martin locked horns. Martin took the early charge, blocking Bagnaia into turn four. Bagnaia replied back a few laps later into the challenging turn 8-9 parabola section. And immediately a lap later, Bagnaia made a big blunder, the front end of his GP23 washing away at turn five, and with it crucial 20 points. 

Martin nearly lost the second spot himself, not once but on a couple of occasions. Firstly, he had to deal with a zipper issue on his set of leathers opening up during the middle part of the race. Plus, with fading tyres and on the verge of suffering heat exhaustion, he screwed up his braking into turn four, running wide and letting Fabio Quartarao through. Martin made a ballsy move back into turn 6-7 and reclaimed second, slashing the gap in the championship to just 13 points.

Indian delight for Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo who made the most of the other’s mishaps today. He was promoted to fourth initially after Honda’s Marc Marquez lost his front end into turn 1. Plus, with Bagnaia’s mistake, he was promoted to the podium spots. Fabio was pleased with the result but still remains hesitant about being too carried away as the performance of the YZR-M1 is still far from challenging the Ducatis and the European manufacturers.

The circus now shifts to Twin Ring Motegi in Japan. Pecco has stated that he cannot make any further mistakes in the coming races. With Martin and Bez breathing down his neck, the Asian leg of the season is going to play an incredible part in deciding who is going to be crowned the 2023 champion.

There’s more on the MotoGP content from the Indian GP coming soon. So stick around.

MotoGP 2023 Championship Standing After Round 13