Ducati’s record-breaking & title-winning season! 🏆 | #SeasonRecap

All they did was win 🏆

The title race was a family affair within Ducati, as their incredible season peaked with Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin’s ultimate showdown in Valencia 👑⚔️

#SeasonRecap | #MotoGP

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17 Grand Prix victories, 43 podiums, 16  Tissot Sprint wins, 17 pole positions,   Riders and manufacturers champions. Ducati didn’t  just break records in 2023, the Bologna Bullets   smashed them! It’s fair to say 2023 will be  remembered for Pecco Bagnaia defending his  

Crown and Ducati taking MotoGP to new heights! But if we tell you how the team in red became   trendsetters and record holders this year, we have  to take you all the way back to the very start of  

The season, so that means beginning where it  all kicked off, 24th of March in Portimao!   Pecco Bagnaia ready to kick off his title  defence in fashion, sporting the number 1 plate,   the first time anyone had done so since 2012 and  the first time for Ducati since Casey Stoner in  

2008. Early season buzz had new team-mate Enea  Bastianini as possibly his closest challenger,   with Prima Pramac Duo Jorge Martin and Johann  Zarco looking to be consistent challengers for   victory. Equipped with GP22 s, Valentino Rossi’s  VR46 team were primed and ready to let loose their  

Hotshots Luca Marini and Marco Bezzecchi and  victory challengers in 2022 Gresini had Alex   Marquez partner Fabio Di Giannantonio, in  what was a star-studied Ducati line-up.   2023 couldn t have started  better for reigning champion,   Pecco Bagnaia. The Italian creating history by  becoming the first-ever Tissot Sprint winner and  

Then backing that up with a commanding  win on Sunday in the main MotoGP race,   becoming the first rider to win with the number  1 plate since Casey Stoner at the 2012 Australian   GP. Leaving the Portuguese GP with 37 points, the  trend look set for the season. That was until  

Two races, two crashes and only sixteen points  from a possible seventy-four. Were we starting   to see a repeat of his 2022 early-season form?  The champ quickly put any doubts to bed with   a stunning late victory at Jerez after a  difficult weekend up until that point. The  

Italian struggling on Friday, finding form on  Saturday and winning on Sunday would become a   trait Pecco and his team would become famous  for later in the season. Bagnaia once again   found himself down and out again in Le Mans  after a clash with Aprilia’s Maverick Viñales.

At this time there was another Italian VR46  Academy star starting to emerge as a title   contender. Enter Marco Bezzecchi riding for  the VR46 Team in his second MotoGP season,   the Italian romped to his first-ever premier class  victory in a wet Argentina. He then backed that  

Up with a history-cementing performance at Le  Mans, winning the 1000th GP. That same weekend   another Ducati rider emerged as a race-winning  contender. Jorge Martin was back to winning ways   for the first time since 2021, in the Tissot  Sprint. Proving that he still had the speed  

To fight for victories, but could he channel  that into consistent race-winning challenges?   We didn t have to wait long to find out, another  Sprint win 2 rounds later proved what many people   thought in the off-season. The new Tissot Sprint  format would suit Jorge Martin’s explosive speed  

Perfectly, but that Sunday win still eluded him.  Less than 24 hours later Martin was chasing his   first weekend double and was embroiled in an  intense back-and-forth battle with champion,   Bagnaia, who himself had done the double again  at the Italian GP, one week prior. Lap after lap,  

The pair locked together passing and repassing  and as Martin came around the final corner to   start the last lap, the Ducati s made contact. Martin held off Bagnaia in an all-time classic   performance that showed ‘The Martinator’  could go toe-to-toe with Pecco!  

The midpoint of the season Pecco  went on a tremendous run of form,   two victories and a second in the races and a  first and second in the Sprints followed over   the next three rounds. The Italian was showing  everyone why he was worthy of the number one.  

But then it all came to a grinding halt. Bagnaia was down and everyone feared for the   Italian. However, it quickly emerged that the  outcome was much better than initially thought   and Pecco walked out of hospital later that  evening, aided by crutches after suffering a  

Leg contusion in the incident. The Italian rocked  up to Misano 5 days later still in discomfort but   fought valiantly through the pain barrier for a  double 3rd place-finish. The injury couldn’t have   come at a worse time as Jorge Martin began  to find momentum, another double victory in  

Misano put Martin back into title contention, 38  points off Bagnaia. He had an air of self-belief;   his blistering speed wasn’t a one-off in  time attack mode. Martin backed this up   with another dominant Sprint win in India and a  2nd place as Pecco began to stumble. Suffering  

With braking stability issues on top of the  injury, The Italian s strength had become a   weakness and it showed as he crashed out of a  safe 2nd place in India and handed Martin 20  

Important points, the gap was now just 14 points. It wasn t just Martin that was back in contention,   Bezzecchi found himself with an outside chance and  those chances had got even bigger with a stunning  

Indian GP victory. His first MotoGP race win since  Le Mans and his first since the Dutch GP Tissot   Sprint and just like he was there at Assen, Marco  was celebrated like a rockstar. He wasn’t the only   GP22 Ducati rider showing form, team-mate Luca  Marini claimed his first MotoGP podium in COTA.  

But he tangled with Bez in India, breaking  his collarbone and putting himself out until   Mandalika, where he bravely charged to 2nd in the  Tissot Sprint and he wasn’t the only one walking   wounded in the VR46 camp that weekend as Bezzecchi  had broken his collarbone the week before at  

Valentino Rossi s ranch, the Italian finished one  place behind Marini in an exhibition of grit and   determination within the Mooney VR46 team. But it  was Jorge Martin that won his 4th straight Tissot   Sprint and in doing so, took the MotoGP  championship lead for the first time in  

His career as Bagnaia could only finish 8th. Martin was looking hard to beat and the only   person that looked able to stop ‘The  Martinator’ would be Jorge himself.   And that’s exactly what happened, Martin  crashed from a comfortable 3-second lead,  

Relinquishing the shortest-ever championship lead  in MotoGP history to Pecco Bagnaia. The Italian   romped to victory from 13th on the grid. Martin’s  soft tyre choice in Australia backfired on the   last lap as he slipped back to 5th after leading  the entire race. Pecco finishing 2nd to extend his  

Lead. To 27 points but the story of the day was  about Martin’s teammate, Johann Zarco. The French   rider had the most unwanted stat in motorsport.  Most podiums without a victory, 19 but podium 20   was different, it was the Frenchman’s first MotoGP  victory and that meant the backflip was back,  

Not seen since his Moto2 swansong at Valencia in  2016. It was the perfect send-off to Pramac and   Ducati as he was moving onto pastures new with  LCR Honda in 2024. He wasn’t the last feel-good   Ducati story of 2023, as Fabio Di Giannantonio,  left without a MotoGP ride in 2024 had started to  

Find his form in the premier class, finishing 3rd  in Australia but his stock would skyrocket with a   stunning victory in Qatar, proving the Italian  was deserving of a place in MotoGP. In the end   the popular Italian was rewarded with a seat  at the VR46 team for 2024 with Marini moving  

To Repsol Honda to try and emulate half-brother  Valentino Rossi. Diggia s new-found form capped   off a strong season for Gresini as Alex Marquez  had already taken his first podium for the team   in Argentina and then again, a 2nd place at Sepang  but this was dwarfed by his two commanding Tissot  

Sprint victories in Silverstone and Sepang. But  the Sepang weekend belonged to Enea Bastinaini,   The Beast had struggled with the GP23, and  his progress was halted by in-season injury,   which meant he missed a total of 7 rounds. But  after trialling a new thumb brake in practice,  

He found he could stop the bike better and  this was a key factor in the Italian taking   his first win since the 2022 Aragon GP. During that time the points gap swung back   and forwards, a trend emerged as Martin  would claw points back on Pecco in the  

Sprints while Pecco would take points back in  the race. There was a 21-point gap between the   pair in the title decider. Martin got  the upper hand in the Tissot Sprint,   pulling the gap to 14 points but all Bagnaia  needed was a 5th place to claim the title.  

The tensions were high, everything was at  stake and as lights went out it was Pecco and   Marti leading the way, that was until Lap 3 Martin got sucked into Pecco’s slipstream and   couldn’t stop the bike, narrowly avoided disaster  but only several laps later it was all over after  

Coming together with Marc Marquez. Pecco was  champion and closed the season off with victory,   becoming in the first Ducati rider in history to  win back-to-back championships, the first Italian   to do so since Valentino Rossi in 2009 and the  first rider to win with the number 1 plate since  

Mick Doohan in 1998. It was a remarkable year  for MotoGP and Bagnaia, Martin put up a valiant   fight all year and both were worthy champions. As 2023 closed its curtain, 2024 opened theirs   and new faces appear the under the Bologna  umbrella, 8-time champion Marc Marquez  

Joins brother Alex at Gresini Ducati and Franco  Morbidelli joins Pramac alongside Jorge Martin   MotoGP in 2024 looks to be bigger and better  than ever but can anyone stop Pecco Bagnaia   from writing even more history as  three-time MotoGP World Champion?