MotoGP has changed the format of Friday practice with immediate effect following calls from riders that the intense nature of the sessions was too much following multiple riders suffering injuries.
The 2023 MotoGP campaign has seen an increase in riders being injured largely as a result of the more aggressive weekend format adopted for this season, with the half-distance Saturday sprint race brought in at all events for this year also leading to a change in Friday practice – where both P1 and P2 worked towards deciding the order of Saturday morning pole shootout session.
Following a spate of injuries so far during 2023 – including Pol Espargaro, who is set to return for the British Grand Prix having crashed ruing practice for the season opening Portuguese GP as well as Honda duo Joan Mir and Alex Rins among others – the Grand Prix Commission therefore has elected to tweak the Friday practice format.
The opening practice outing will now be renamed from P1 to FP1 and will now no longer count towards progressing to Q2, allowing riders to ease themselves into the weekend without having to worry about launching themselves into a time attack situation from the outset.
P2 will now be named simply ‘Practice’ and will be the only session that determines which ten pilots will graduate directly into the pole shootout test, while the short 30 minute outing before qualifying will now be named FP2.
Both Friday sessions will remain the same length at 45 and 60 minutes respectively, a change that is hoped will reduce the likelihood of early weekend crashes when the track is greener – as well as reduce rider fatigue across the weekend.
