MotoGP Barcelona 2023 Race Predictions: Top Catalan GP Tips

Barcelona is one of the traditional venues of the MotoGP World Championship and with good reason, as the race around the circuit is always an interesting preposition.

MotoGP Barcelona 2023 Race Predictions

Francesco Bagnaia will start on pole position for the Grand Prix that will take place today over 24 laps. In qualifying, he was able to narrowly beat the Aprilias of Aleix Espargaro, Miguel Oliveira and Maverick Vinales, all of which have been very competitive the whole weekend. Jorge Martin will start fifth, looking to consolidate second place in the standings.

Prediction #1: Aleix Espargaro to Win

Much like the Sprint, Aleix Espargaro is expected to be strong in the Grand Prix as well. Both the Aprilia as well as the Catalan rider himself are better suited to race conditions and the longer distance is only going to play into their hands.

Espargaro showed in the Sprint that even a bad start cannot faze him and the bike has enough top speed in order to challenge and overtake the Ducatis. On top of thar, the combination of rider and team is renowned for the ability to manage tyres, which of course played into their hands when Espargaro won the British GP with a last-lap pass on Bagnaia.

Prediction #2: Francesco Bagnaia to lead the first lap

In surprisingly high odds, we find a bet regarding the opening lap. We predict that Francesco Bagnaia will lead the first lap, much like he did not only in the Sprint but both races in Austria. In fact, in Austria he had to beat the much stronger (in terms of race starts) combination of Brad Binder and KTM.

The getaway from the line is the big weak point for Aprilia and the fact that three of its bikes are behind Bagnaia will create a great buffer between the championship leader and Jorge Martin, who starts second. The Pramac rider made it up to second in the Sprint on Saturday.

MotoGP Barcelona 2023 Weather Conditions

After a lot of clouds and a few rain drops hit the track on Saturday, the weather is expected to improve on Sunday. The sunshine will make its return and -despite a few clouds- the temperatures are expected to reach almost 30 degrees Celsius for the race.

MotoGP Barcelona 2023 Important details

How can I watch the Catalan GP Sprint race in the UK, the US and Australia? TNT Sports and Foxtel will have live coverage of the race in UK and Australia respectively, while NBC Sports will only show highlights for the US viewers.

What is the Catalan GP start time? The race will start at 1:00 pm BST (12:00 pm GMT) on Sunday, September 3rd.

What happened in qualifying? In close fight against three Aprilia riders, Francesco Bagnaia prevailed and claimed pole position.

What happened in the Sprint? Despite dropping to fourth in the start, Aleix Espargaro recovered to win his first Sprint.