The rules
Practice
With the introduction of a sprint race on Saturday afternoon, MotoGP riders now have two longer free practice sessions on Friday, 45 minutes for FP1 and 1 hour for FP2. The top ten finishers in the combined standings of these two sessions go straight into Q2. FP3 becomes a similar session to FP4, i.e. the times set in FP3 do not count towards qualifying. The two fastest drivers in Q1 join the ten already selected for Q2, which is used to decide the grid for both the Saturday afternoon sprint race and the Sunday Grand Prix. Each row consists of three riders. To qualify, a rider must have set a time at least equal to 107% of the time set by the fastest driver.
Races
The MotoGP World Championship consists of 21 Grand Prix. Each race lasts between 40 and 45 minutes over a distance of between 100 and 130 km, depending on the circuit. Points are awarded at the finish line for the first 15 riders according to the following scale: 25, 20, 15, 13, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 point. Since 2023, a sprint race has been added to Saturday afternoon. It takes place over half the distance of the Sunday Grand Prix and only the first nine finishers score points for the world championship ranking. The scale is as follows: 12 points for the first, 9 for the second, 7 for the third... And so on until the ninth.
