The 2016 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season was the 68th F.I.M. Road Racing World Championship season. Jorge Lorenzo was the defending world champion, having secured his third MotoGP title and fifth overall Championship title at the 2015 Valencian Community Grand Prix. The riders' championship title was won for the third time by Marc Márquez, after his fifth victory of the season at the Japanese Grand Prix gave him an unassailable lead over his title rivals Lorenzo andValentino Rossi – who both crashed out at Motegi – with three races remaining. Márquez's title marked a return to the top step for Honda after a difficult 2015 campaign for its factory team. Márquez ultimately won the championship by 49 points. Reigning champion Lorenzo won three of the first six races to lead the title race, but very poor wet weather form during wet races in mid-season curtailed his title bid along with no wins in the dry until the season-ending race in Valencia. Rossi was the most consistent title challenger, yet he crashed out of three races up until Márquez's decisive victory in Japan. The Yamaha team suffered a severe win drought from June onwards, going eight races without a win before Márquez clinched the title. The drought reached ten races before Lorenzo's Valencian triumph, in his final race for the manufacturer before his move to Ducati in 2017. Rossi clinched the runner-up position by 16 points from Lorenzo, while their performances earned Yamaha the teams' championship, although Honda won the manufacturers' championship. Interenstingly, the rookie in this season was only Tito Rabat – who clinched a rookie of the year award. LCR Honda rider, Cal Crutchlow, achieved the top independent rider award; which he won at Brno and Phillip Island and finished in 7th place in the championship with 141 points. The 2016 season saw numerous records in regards to race winners. Cal Crutchlow, Jack Miller, Andrea Iannone and Maverick Viñales won their first races in the premier class, the first time that four new winners had emerged in a MotoGP season. Between the Italian Grand Prix in May and the San Marino Grand Prix in September, eight riders – Lorenzo, Rossi, Miller, Márquez, Iannone, Crutchlow, Viñales and Dani Pedrosa – won in eight successive races, surpassing the previous record of seven, between the 1999 Imola Grand Prix and the 2000 South African Grand Prix. With a win for Andrea Dovizioso in Malaysia further adding to the tally, the total of nine winners was also a record for a single premier class season, surpassing the previous record of eight in the 2000 season.
The rule changes. A new tyre supplier – Michelin – and uniform electronics from Magneti Marelli mean things have changed significantly for 2016. There’s still a degree of uncertainty surrounding the performance of the new Michelins, and the introduction of spec electronic software means we're likely to see rider skill come into things even more. They'll have to manually manage the switch between different mappings as the race goes on (before, the sophisticated factory electronics were programmed to do that themselves). The synergy between the two, and who finds the best link at each track and in different conditions, will certainly be fascinating to watch. Maybe someone will nail it from Round 1, or perhaps everyone will spend a large part of the season working it out. It’ll be fun watching them figure it all out.
The hangover from last season. There’s no escaping it. The pre-Qatar press conference on Wednesday may have been everything that the organisers had hoped for (no fireworks between riders), but there’s definitely still something bubbling away following a dramatic and somewhat controversial end to the 2015 season. Valentino Rossi and Marc Márquez’s relationship – if you could call it that now – remains strained to the limit and with no hope of repair. Jorge Lorenzo took his third MotoGP title last year, and there was no doubt he fully deserved it, but it’s clear to see that the whole “what if” game played by the media about Rossi’s title hopes bother the Spaniard. Despite being world champion, he’ll still feel he has a point to prove, whether he admits it or not. Dani Pedrosa had a spectacular end to the season (two strong wins in the final four races), but his efforts went largely unheralded due to the furore surrounding other events. Not that Pedrosa needs any extra motivation, but with such a professional approach he’ll certainly be keen to bring the focus back to racing.
What happened in testing. With the technical changes mentioned above, there is a real sense of a levelling of the playing field. The established factories will still have an advantage, but heading into 2016 there is a greater sense of openness. The variation of performance across the three testing tracks of Sepang, Phillip Island and Losail in the lead-up to this new season, and the magic combination of new tyres and electronics and changing conditions mean that while testing – as always – can never be fully relied on as an indicator of outright race pace, it can give a little indication of who’s peaking in confidence. Seeing riders like Maverick Viñales, Scott Redding and Danilo Petrucci (who unfortunately injured his hand in a testing crash) going fast and looking comfortable brings fresh excitement.
The quality of the grid. Of the 21 riders on the MotoGP grid this year, ten are world champions. They hold a total of 27 Grand Prix titles between them. That’s a serious pedigree.
The continued development of young talent The MotoGP World Championship continues to bring through the most exciting young riders on a global scale. In MotoGP this year the likes of Viñales, in his second year in the premier class, is looking good for podiums, while in Moto2 riders such as Álex Rins appear to be on a rapid rise to the top tier.
The rule changes. A new tyre supplier – Michelin – and uniform electronics from Magneti Marelli mean things have changed significantly for 2016. There’s still a degree of uncertainty surrounding the performance of the new Michelins, and the introduction of spec electronic software means we're likely to see rider skill come into things even more. They'll have to manually manage the switch between different mappings as the race goes on (before, the sophisticated factory electronics were programmed to do that themselves). The synergy between the two, and who finds the best link at each track and in different conditions, will certainly be fascinating to watch. Maybe someone will nail it from Round 1, or perhaps everyone will spend a large part of the season working it out. It’ll be fun watching them figure it all out.
The hangover from last season. There’s no escaping it. The pre-Qatar press conference on Wednesday may have been everything that the organisers had hoped for (no fireworks between riders), but there’s definitely still something bubbling away following a dramatic and somewhat controversial end to the 2015 season. Valentino Rossi and Marc Márquez’s relationship – if you could call it that now – remains strained to the limit and with no hope of repair. Jorge Lorenzo took his third MotoGP title last year, and there was no doubt he fully deserved it, but it’s clear to see that the whole “what if” game played by the media about Rossi’s title hopes bother the Spaniard. Despite being world champion, he’ll still feel he has a point to prove, whether he admits it or not. Dani Pedrosa had a spectacular end to the season (two strong wins in the final four races), but his efforts went largely unheralded due to the furore surrounding other events. Not that Pedrosa needs any extra motivation, but with such a professional approach he’ll certainly be keen to bring the focus back to racing.
What happened in testing. With the technical changes mentioned above, there is a real sense of a levelling of the playing field. The established factories will still have an advantage, but heading into 2016 there is a greater sense of openness. The variation of performance across the three testing tracks of Sepang, Phillip Island and Losail in the lead-up to this new season, and the magic combination of new tyres and electronics and changing conditions mean that while testing – as always – can never be fully relied on as an indicator of outright race pace, it can give a little indication of who’s peaking in confidence. Seeing riders like Maverick Viñales, Scott Redding and Danilo Petrucci (who unfortunately injured his hand in a testing crash) going fast and looking comfortable brings fresh excitement.
The quality of the grid. Of the 21 riders on the MotoGP grid this year, ten are world champions. They hold a total of 27 Grand Prix titles between them. That’s a serious pedigree.
The continued development of young talent The MotoGP World Championship continues to bring through the most exciting young riders on a global scale. In MotoGP this year the likes of Viñales, in his second year in the premier class, is looking good for podiums, while in Moto2 riders such as Álex Rins appear to be on a rapid rise to the top tier.
2016 MotoGP Results and standings
Grands Prix
Round
|
Grand Prix
|
Winning rider
|
1
|
Qatar motorcycle Grand Prix
|
Jorge Lorenzo
|
2
|
Argentine motorcycle Grand Prix
|
Marc Márquez
|
3
|
Motorcycle Grand Prix of the Americas
|
Marc Márquez
|
4
|
Spanish motorcycle Grand Prix
|
Valentino Rossi
|
5
|
French motorcycle Grand Prix
|
Jorge Lorenzo
|
6
|
Italian motorcycle Grand Prix
|
Jorge Lorenzo
|
7
|
Catalan motorcycle Grand Prix
|
Valentino Rossi
|
8
|
Dutch TT
|
Jack Miller
|
9
|
German motorcycle Grand Prix
|
Marc Márquez
|
10
|
Austrian motorcycle Grand Prix
|
Andrea Iannone
|
11
|
Czech Republic motorcycle Grand Prix
|
Cal Crutchlow
|
12
|
British motorcycle Grand Prix
|
Maverick Viñales
|
13
|
San Marino and Rimini's Coast motorcycle Grand Prix
|
Dani Pedrosa
|
14
|
Aragon motorcycle Grand Prix
|
Marc Márquez
|
15
|
Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix
|
Marc Márquez
|
16
|
Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix
|
Cal Crutchlow
|
17
|
Malaysian motorcycle Grand Prix
|
Andrea Dovizioso
|
18
|
Valencian Community motorcycle Grand Prix
|
Jorge Lorenzo
|
Riders' standings
Pos
|
Rider
|
Bike
|
Pts
|
1
|
Marc Márquez
|
Honda
|
298
|
2
|
Valentino Rossi
|
Yamaha
|
249
|
3
|
Jorge Lorenzo
|
Yamaha
|
233
|
4
|
Maverick Viñales
|
Suzuki
|
202
|
5
|
Andrea Dovizioso
|
Ducati
|
171
|
6
|
Dani Pedrosa
|
Honda
|
155
|
7
|
Cal Crutchlow
|
Honda
|
141
|
8
|
Pol Espargaró
|
Yamaha
|
134
|
9
|
Andrea Iannone
|
Ducati
|
112
|
10
|
Héctor Barberá
|
Ducati
|
102
|
11
|
Aleix Espargaró
|
Suzuki
|
93
|
12
|
Álvaro Bautista
|
Aprilia
|
82
|
13
|
Eugene Laverty
|
Ducati
|
77
|
14
|
Danilo Petrucci
|
Ducati
|
75
|
15
|
Scott Redding
|
Ducati
|
74
|
16
|
Stefan Bradl
|
Aprilia
|
63
|
17
|
Bradley Smith
|
Yamaha
|
62
|
18
|
Jack Miller
|
Honda
|
57
|
19
|
Michele Pirro
|
Ducati
|
36
|
20
|
Loris Baz
|
Ducati
|
35
|
21
|
Esteve Rabat
|
Honda
|
29
|
22
|
Yonny Hernández
|
Ducati
|
20
|
23
|
Katsuyuki Nakasuga
|
Yamaha
|
5
|
24
|
Alex Lowes
|
Yamaha
|
3
|
25
|
Hiroshi Aoyama
|
Honda
|
1
|
26
|
Nicky Hayden
|
Honda
|
1
|
27
|
Mike Jones
|
Ducati
|
1
|
-
|
Mika Kallio
|
KTM
|
0
|
-
|
Javier Forés
|
Ducati
|
0
|
