MotoGP Portimao: ‘Exciting but demanding’ - Riders talk sprint race shake-up

Riders have given a cautious thumbs up to MotoGP’s overhauled race format shake-up ahead of the Portuguese MotoGP in Portimao, branding it ‘exciting’ albeit ‘physically demanding’.

MotoGP rounds will swell to become double-header events at each of this season’s 21 grands prix, with a half-distance, half-points ‘Sprint Race’ to prelude Sunday’s conventional full distance encounter.

Introduced in an effort to stem a dip in spectator attendance at some venues and boost TV viewing figures, the extra race has resulted in a shake-up of the format as a whole. Now, Friday Free Practice 1 and 2 will be used to determine which ten riders will progress directly to Saturday’s Q2 session.

The short practice session previously prior to Q1 remains, but will be held on Saturday morning and become known as Free Practice 3 in place of an erstwhile third 45min session.

With points available to the top nine riders, the scoring system will be tweaked to 12-9-7-6-5-4-3-2-1, before returning to a familiar ‘25 for a win’ format for Sunday’s MotoGP main show.

While the change drew a mixed reaction when it was first announced last season, riders attending Thursday’s pre-event press conference offered a more enthusiastic tone in front of the media and the assembled Dorna top brass looming in their periphery.

Pecco Bagnaia “Excited like always before starting a new season. It changed a bit the strategy of the weekend, the way to work, because now with the second practice, you have more time so you have to do the time attack in the second practice, not in FP3 so it changes a bit.

“I tried a sprint race and I feel good on it, but it’s a different way to approach the race because you have to push like hell and not concentrate too much the rear tyre