The MotoGP World Championship will take a break at Easter, but the third Grand Prix of the 2023 season will continue next weekend in Austin/Texas. It’s getting late in Europe because of the time difference.
Since 2013, the Motorcycling World Championship has stopped in Austin on the “Circuit of The Americas” (COTA for short), which was built according to the designs of the famous F1 architect Hermann Tilke. The 5.513 km long route is driven anti-clockwise and has eleven left and nine right-hand bends with an altitude difference of almost 41 m. The longest straight is 1200 m.
With seven Texas victories, Marc Márquez is the undisputed «King of COTA». However, in 2019 Alex Rins (then on Suzuki) was on hand when the Repsol Honda star crashed while in the lead, and last year Enea Bastianini won on Ducati. The “Bestia” and Marc Márquez, like Joan Mir and Miguel Oliveira, are hoping for Austin to return to racing. Will they get fit in time?
So far, it is certain that Pol Espargaró will be out for a longer period of time. The German Jonas Folger, who is about to make his MotoGP comeback, will take his place in the GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 Team in Texas.
A seven-hour time difference to Central Europe means that the MotoGP racing action for fans in Germany, Austria and Switzerland will start later than last time in Argentina: the sprint is scheduled for 10 p.m. on Saturday and the race on Sunday at 9 p.m.
Texas GP Schedule 2023 (CEST)
Friday April 14:
4:00 p.m. – 4:35 p.m. (35 min): Moto3, Practice 1
16:50 – 17:30 (40 min): Moto2, Practice 1
5:45 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. (45 min): MotoGP, Practice 1
8:15 p.m. – 8:50 p.m. (35 min): Moto3, Practice 2
21:05 – 21:45 (40 min): Moto2, Practice 2
10:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m. (60 min): MotoGP, Practice 2
Saturday April 15:
3:40 p.m. – 4:10 p.m. (30 min): Moto3, Practice 3
16:25 – 16:55 (30 min): Moto2, Practice 3
17:10 – 17:40 Uhr (30 min): MotoGP, Free Practice
5:50 p.m. – 6:05 p.m. (15 min): MotoGP, Qualifying 1
18:15 – 18:30 (15 min): MotoGP, Qualifying 2
7:50 p.m. – 8:05 p.m. (15 min): Moto3, qualifying 1
8:15 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. (15 min): Moto3, qualifying 2
20:45 – 21:00 Uhr (15 min): Moto2, Qualifying 1
21:10 – 21:25 Uhr (15 min): Moto2, Qualifying 2
start time
10:00 p.m.: MotoGP Sprint (10 laps)
Sunday April 16:
16:45 – 16:55 (10 min): MotoGP, warm-up
start times
6:00 p.m.: Moto3 race (14 laps)
7:15 p.m.: Moto2 race (16 laps)
9pm: MotoGP race (20 laps)
