The first fully wet MotoGP race of the season produced an exciting 26-laps as battles up and down the field went to the wire, Luca Marini earns another 12th and Joan Mir makes it another double-point scoring finish in 15th.

Persistent rain across the day saw in the first wet MotoGP race in almost a year. Damp Warm Up saw Luca Marini thrive as he finished the 10-minute session in third, immediately looking strong in the tricky conditions of Buriram. The following hours saw the weather dance between parting clouds and further showers, before the weather settled and the race was declared wet.

With his confidence buoyed by his Warm Up result, Luca Marini was eager to make progress when the lights went out, immediately pursuing his teammate. A string of steady laps brought the #10 into the points and closer to his fellow Honda riders on the edge of the top ten. Tricky conditions caught out a number of riders, but Marini had everything under control as he climbed higher and higher. Crossing the line 12th place, the Italian equals his best result of the year and makes it three-point scoring finishes in a row. Both his development as a rider and development of the Honda RC213V machine are clear to see in his consistent improvements.

An impressive start from Joan Mir once again saw him charge towards the top ten from 19th and settle into an intense battle with the likes of Alex Marquez, Luca Marini, Johann Zarco and Augusto Fernandez. During the middle stage of the race, Mir’s feeling with the Honda RC213V began to change and he was unable to match the pace he had shown earlier. His situation was further complicated by contact with Marc Marquez which sent the #36 into the long lap zone. Even in face of the hardships, Mir walks away with another point.

The end of the 2024 MotoGP World Championship season is now in sight, just two more stops left on the calendar. Malaysia, the scene of the first test of the year, comes the very next week to round out the triple-header.

Luca Marini

“I enjoyed Warm Up and the race a lot. Conditions were super complicated and there were a lot of points where you had to risk crashing. Even in these tricky conditions I was quite fast, but with how slippery it was on track it was quite difficult to overtake so I was behind several riders for a bit too long. It was really fun to battle with Mir and Zarco for most of the race. A satisfactory race to save the weekend after a really challenging Saturday. Now two more chances to make some more progress before the next season starts.”

A damp Grand Prix of Thailand produced another memorable chapter of a long 2024 MotoGP championship campaign and the soaking circuit at Buriram was a platform for Jack Miller and Brad Binder to show off their bravery and skills with the KTM RC16 once more. Miller rode to 5th position after launching from 15th on the grid and was holding a podium place for most of the race while Binder ran with the leaders and was 6th.

Friday was hot and sunny, Saturday humid and cloudy and race day produced wet conditions for the eighteenth MotoGP dispute of the season at Buriram and the fifth-ever Grand Prix of Thailand. Circulating an immaculate 12-corner and 4.5km circuit populated with an 85,000 crowd, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing not only had their eye on the best possible results with the KTM RC16 but also the run to Malaysia and Spain to close the championship and open the first step to 2025 with the next official MotoGP test only three-and-a-half weeks away.

Binder and Miller started the 26-lap Grand Prix from the sides of the fifth row. Cutting through the gloom and the spray in the first two laps the South African had recovered ground to be roaming the top five while the Australian carved his way through and soon overtook his teammate to reach P4. Jack was then in the running for the podium and only a late attack by Pedro Acosta bumped him away from the Prosecco. Brad crossed the line in 6th and just three tenths behind.

Two rounds and a maximum of 74 points lay on the table for the rest of 2024. Binder is 5th in the standings. Miller is 14th and KTM sit 6th from 11 in the Teams contest while they rank 2nd in the Constructors championship.

MotoGP immediately moves on to another tropical climate and to the penultimate race of the year with the Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang International Circuit next weekend.

Jack Miller, 5th: “A good race. A long old one. The first laps were a bit hairy and the spray was hectic and so was the carnage. I found my way through to 4th and when Marc threw it down I was 3rd for a while. I was really suffering from the front end as I’d cooked the front tire and all my roll speed has pretty much gone. With three laps to go there was nothing left and I was being hunted. I gave it all I could to be on the podium but it wasn’t to be. It was a good race though and good pace. Consistent and perhaps coming through the pack cost us the most and put the most stress on the tire. I really wanted that podium.”

Brad Binder, 6th: “I knew it would be important to get to the front early because of the spray and that worked out pretty well. I felt really comfortable to thanks to my guys for the changes we made because I felt great in the wet. It was just a shame that I had squared the tire by the last four or five laps and was just spinning a lot. Hard to drive out of the corners. I wanted more but having started 13th and scoring 6th then that’s all we had today.”

Francesco Guidotti, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager: “The visibility in the first laps was crazy but both Jack and Brad recovered a lot of positions and we had 3rd until two laps from the end. We missed the podium by almost nothing. The conditions were hard, a mess, and to stay-up was a miracle. Congratulations to our guys for their job and we’ll look forward to Sepang.”

In a dramatic race, a great comeback by the rider of the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team, in the last race of his season. Forced to retire after a crash in the early stages of the GP Marco Bezzecchi.

Buriram (Thailand), October 27th 2024 - Fabio Di Giannantonio close his 2024 season with the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team in the best possible way with the fourth place at the Thai GP, which took place today under the rain in Buriram. A dramatic race with an incredible comeback from the P13 and a podium just missed for a breath. Marco Bezzecchi instead crashed during the third lap.

Starting from the eighth box on the grid, Fabio is fighting in the group in the early stages of the race. Capable of imposing an excellent pace and exploiting all the potential of the Ducati Desmosedici GP in the final, he closes the gap and climbs the standings. Final duel with Acosta for the third step of the podium and the eighth position in the general classification with 165 points on the eve of the surgery on his left shoulder that will force him to miss the last two events of the Championship.

Sunday to forget for Marco, starting from P4 and on track again next Sunday at the Malaysian GP, the last race of this long trip outside Europe. 14th at the first corner and struggling in the first laps, in the attempt to recover, he crashes during the third lap when he was in P12. 

Aldi Satya Mahendra will go down in the history books as Indonesia’s first ever motorcycle road racing world champion, after the 18-year-old former bLU cRU rider clinched the 2024 FIM Supersport World Championship title in style during the final round of the series at the Circuito de Jerez, after a season of epic racing.

Mahendra is the second bLU cRU rider to be crowned champion in the WorldSSP300 class, with Alvaro Diaz also claiming the world title for Yamaha back in 2022.

Like Diaz before him, Mahendra’s championship winning race in Jerez brings to an end his WorldSSP300 career. The Indonesian youngster will benefit from Yamaha’s racing step-up program, designed to support the next generation of talent, and in 2025 Mahendra will contest the FIM Supersport World Championship aboard an R9 with a Yamaha supported team.

Mahendra’s career began at just nine years of age in the 2015 Indonesian national series, and by 2019 he had already moved onto the international racing scene, riding full time in the Asia Road Racing Championship. Despite losing a year of riding due to the pandemic in 2021, by the end of 2022 his success in Asia led him to the Yamaha FIM R3 bLU cRU World Cup.  

Once inside the bLU cRU programme in 2023, Mahendra quickly grew in confidence and competence, taking second place in only the third race of the year. By the third round at Misano World Circuit he had already taken his first victory, the beginning of a run of five wins that would see him battle for the title until the final race of 2023. 

During a gap in the FIM R3 bLU cRU World Cup calendar, Mahendra made his WorldSSP300 debut as a wildcard in Most and surprised the series regulars with an emphatic win in Race 2.

After narrowly missing out on the FIM R3 bLU cRU World Cup title at the final round of 2023, Mahendra made the switch to WorldSSP300 full time in 2024 and quickly made his mark. Second place at the first race in Barcelona was backed up with another second place and a win in Misano. He stepped onto the podium again in Most, and after missing out on a top three finish in Portimão, he bounced back with a double podium in Magny-Cours, where he was joined both times by his older brother, and WorldSSP rival, Galang Hendra Pratama.

With the 2024 WorldSSP300 title now in his sights, he had to rein in his usually all-out riding style to focus on consistent point scoring places. A podium at the penultimate round in Aragón set him up nicely for the final push in Jerez, a third place in Race 1 meant Mahendra went into the last race of the year with a 22-point lead. He kept calm and rode with precision to take sixth at the chequered flag, securing the title by 21 points. 

A brilliant day of rallying from Monster Energy Honda Team’s Tosha Schareina saw him equal the all-time record of ten World Rally-Raid Championship stage wins in a season as Honda also rounded out 2024 with the FIM Manufacturers’ title.

With the curtain falling on the Rallye du Maroc, Schareina and Adrien Van Beveren put in gutsy rides across the 273km special stage which started and ended back at the Mengoub bivouac but for Schareina there was added impetus to prove a point after a couple of days of bad luck.  A time penalty on stage 3 had in effect put him out of the running for victory due to an inaccurate note in the roadbook, which then led to a navigation error that also affected Van Beveren and several other riders.

However, the Spaniard had shown his resilience and jumped to the top of the timesheets midway through the stage today from his fifth place starting position.  A see-saw battle with fellow countryman Lorenzo Santolino went right to the line with Schareina taking the stage win by just over a minute to place him second on the rally, just 11 minutes behind the overall victor, Daniel Sanders.

Having great pace and flow on his Honda CRF450 RALLY, it was a better day for Adrien Van Beveren  who took the stage podium in third, just 1’39” back from his teammate.

With Sanders not taking part in the World Rally-Raid Championship, Schareina added the Rallye Du Maroc victory to his Rally-Raid Portugal one earlier this year as Adrien Van Beveren made it a Monster Energy Honda Team one-two in the official W2RC overall standings.

The Frenchman took the runner up spot in the FIM riders’ championship while in his first full season in Monster Energy Honda Team colours, Schareina clinched the final spot on the podium in what has been a remarkable season for him following his win in Portugal and his second place in Argentina.

Honda are FIM Manufacturer Champions for a third consecutive year with the team winning three rounds of the 2024 World Rally-Raid Championship including the biggest motorsport event of them all, the Dakar Rally.

The Monster Energy Honda Team will now rest up before preparing for the 2025 season that kicks off with the Dakar Rally on 3rd January in Saudi Arabia.

Brad Binder reversed his fortunes and was able to leave the dark and cloudy confines of the Motegi circuit in Japan with 6th position for the sixteenth round of the season. The South African started from 5th and banished the memory of his bad luck in the Sprint for a spirited charge. Jack Miller made his own fightback from a qualification slot of 14th to finish 10th.

MotoGP moved Motegi for a high-paced final appointment of the triple header that has taken in trips to Emilia Romagna, Indonesia and Japan in three consecutive weeks. Red Bull KTM Factory Racing were fast and lively from the opening sessions at the 4.8km course where changeable weather conditions flirted between wet and dry asphalt for the three days of the Grand Prix program.

Binder started from P5 on the grid, Miller was P14 after their respective efforts and circumstances in Q1 and Q2 on Saturday. A technical issue had interrupted Brad’s attempt for a podium on Saturday while Jack tried some big set-up changes to rise to 8th in the same Sprint.

On Sunday, motivation and determination remained high as the clouds kept dry. Binder burst into the top three but Miller’s start was amazing and he passed nine riders to reach a highpoint of 5th! Brad and Jack then established their pace as the laps counted down and tire life had to be managed. The South African rode a largely lonely race until the final stages when he dropped to 6th. The Australian battled for 10th.

Binder is up to 5th in the world championship standings while Miller is 15th. KTM are ranked 2nd in the Constructors table. A one-week reprieve from racing will then take MotoGP into more back-to-back fixtures with trips to Phillip Island, Buriram and Sepang for Australian, Thai and Malaysian Grands Prix and the final straight of the 2024 campaign.

Brad Binder, 6th: “In the beginning when I wanted to push on with the boys I kept losing the front but after a while everything felt OK for a section of the race. Then with six-seven laps to go the rear tire went and it was spinning all the way down the straight. It was really difficult to keep clean and consistent. In general everything else was quite OK. Not the race I wanted…but it was all we had today.”

Jack Miller, 10th: “We made a bit more headway with the bike and I made the best pace I could. I can generally get away good and hit my marks. I was in the right spot at the right time. It was fun to be there at the beginning. We’re struggling a bit with mid-corner and corner exit speed. The front is stable and it stayed solid all race but we still have some work to do. This hard-braking track was good for us. We’ll come back next week and give it a crack at the Island and see how it goes there.”

Francesco Guidotti, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager: “A good start for our boys. They were both top five and especially Jack made a great effort from the back. They kept their positions. It was a tough race and a long distance. We cannot complain, top ten and close to the top five. It’s what we have from this Grand Prix and now we have to look forwards.”

Team HRC had an amazing day at the 2024 edition of the prestigious Motocross of Nation event, with Tim Gajser putting in two incredible rides to go one-one and win the MXGP class, also helping Slovenia to their best ever finish. His teammate Ruben Fernandez was excellent in his races, finishing second in his first race before recovering all the way up to 12^th, from last position. Unfortunately, Spain narrowly missed out on the podium, but it was still a good day that included a holeshot for the Honda CRF450R rider.

Joining the Team HRC MXGP riders this weekend were the Australian duo of Jett and Hunter Lawrence from Honda HRC in America and that pair were instrumental in Australia winning their first ever Chamberlain Trophy. And with Gajser winning race one, Jett taking victory in race two (with Fernandez second) and then Gajser swooping through on the last corner to beat Jett to make it another HRC one-two, everyone involved with Honda had a very good day.

In race one, Gajser had another excellent start placing second around the bend and putting himself in perfect position on the Matterley Basin track that he loves so much. It didn’t take long for him to make the move into the lead and from there, he controlled the race against some top opposition.

Race two saw the MX2 guys against the Open riders, with Fernandez out for Spain and hoping to give the nation their first ever MXON podium. And things got off to a great start as the Honda CRF450R rider stormed out of the gate to take the holeshot and lead the early part of the race. Jett then found his way past, but Fernandez never stopped pushing and followed home his fellow Honda rider in second place.

With the Chamberlain Trophy at stake, and individual glory on the line, the third race saw the gate filled with 450cc machines and the very best riders on the planet hoping for victory. Out of the gate, Gajser didn’t get the best jump but he was very much in the mix round the first bend and quickly moved up inside the top five. On an extremely technical Matterley circuit, the Slovenian felt at home and slowly but surely worked his way into fourth, third, second and then after a multi-lap duel, into the lead.

After the way he rode in race one, he tried to check out, but Jett needed every point in order to help the Australian points-tally and he closed up before making a move with three laps to go. From then on, the two HRC riders put on a show for the massive crowd, as the best motocross riders on the planet went head-to-head. It looked like Jett would take the bragging rights, but Gajser got excellent drive out of the corner before the triple and managed to make a pass with just two corners to go, celebrating it ecstatic fashion as he won the final moto of 2024.

Jett was also celebrating though as Australia won their first ever Motocross of Nations, as Hunter also put in two great races and they were backed-up by Honda’s Kyle Webster in the MX2 class, giving them the win by just three points.

Unfortunately, Fernandez suffered a crash on the first lap and remounted in dead last, but he put his head down and put on a massive charge to finish all the way up in 12^th place. This gave Spain fourth overall and their joint-best finish ever at this race and motivation that the podium isn’t far away.

But the day belonged to Gajser, who put the disappointment of the second-place in the 2024 MXGP Championship behind him, and showed everyone that he is one of the greatest motocross riders ever, with a ride that will go down in history.

Race 1 – MXGP & MX2
1. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), 35:11.182;

2. Eli Tomac (USA, Yamaha), +0:06.810;

3. Romain Febvre (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:08.978;

4. Jorge Prado (ESP, GASGAS), +0:18.038;

5. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), +0:28.371;

6. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:30.159;

7. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Kawasaki), +0:31.445;

8. Hunter Lawrence (AUS, Honda), +0:42.032;

9. Alberto Forato (ITA, Honda), +0:51.153;

10. Ken Roczen (GER, Suzuki), +0:58.580;

Race 2 – MX2 & Open
1. Jett Lawrence (AUS, Honda), 36:14.723;

2. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, Honda), +0:07.919;

3. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GASGAS), +0:10.438;

4. Maxime Renaux (FRA, Yamaha), +0:12.162;

5. Kay de Wolf (NED, Husqvarna), +0:29.029;

6. Conrad Mewse (GBR, KTM), +0:35.536;

7. Aaron Plessinger (USA, KTM), +0:37.007;

8. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, Yamaha), +0:41.572;

9. Cooper Webb (USA, Yamaha), +0:43.286;

10. Mikkel Haarup (DEN, Triumph), +0:43.325;

Race 3 – MXGP & Open
1. Tim Gajser (SLO, Honda), 35:51.888;

2. Jett Lawrence (AUS, Honda), +0:00.459;

3. Eli Tomac (USA, Yamaha), +0:17.172;

4. Hunter Lawrence (AUS, Honda), +0:18.129;

5. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), +0:20.434;

6. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, Kawasaki), +1:00.988;

7. Alberto Forato (ITA, Honda), +1:09.220;

8. Aaron Plessinger (USA, KTM), +1:12.390;

9. Maxime Renaux (FRA, Yamaha), +1:17.022;

10. Ken Roczen (GER, Suzuki), +1:20.261;

11. Enzo Lopes (BRA, Yamaha), +1:31.002;

12. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, Honda), +1:31.229;

Nations Overall
1. Australia – 26
2. USA – 29
3. The Netherlands – 36
4. Spain – 45
5. France – 50
6. Germany – 62
7. Slovenia – 67

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Brad Binder wasn’t to be denied a maximum possible points haul at the Indonesian Grand Prix as the South African pushed from a 19^th grid slot deficit to take 8th at Mandalika. Jack Miller was one of nine non-finishers at round 15 of 20.

• Binder caps a weekend in Indonesia by banking a top eight result after 27 demanding laps in the afternoon Lombok heat
• Miller’s race is short-lived as the Australian loses control through the Turn 2/Turn3 change of direction on the first lap
• Points for Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Jose Antonio Rueda with 11th in Moto3™ and a decent top ten classification for Deniz Öncü in Moto2™

The sapping heat remained on full tap for race day at the 2024 Grand Prix of Indonesia and the third MotoGP run around the flat and twisty Mandalika International Circuit layout. 60,000 spectators packed the parasols, caps, cream and cold drinks for a tantalizing program of racing. The 27 laps of MotoGP was the star draw and, after the adversity of Saturday, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing duo Jack Miller and Brad Binder aimed to cut their way through the field from the sixth and seventh rows of the grid.

Both the South African and the Australian made their customary rapid starts and Binder was quickly up to the fringes of the top ten. Miller’s race was over before it could begin with a crash through Turn 2/3. Maintaining focus in the conditions and trying to maximize tire life and speed were the priorities as much as gaining ground in the ranking for Brad.

Binder gave all he had to bring the KTM RC16 back to the pitlane with P8. Out of the pair, Binder is higher placed in the current points table in 6th while Miller is 15th in the championship.

MotoGP will get fast for the third weekend in a row and the team and riders will fly north to Japan and the cooler climate of Motegi for the next challenge this week.

Brad Binder, 8th: “A tricky one for us today. We made some changes this morning and tried something quite different but it was clear in the race that I didn’t quite have the margin to push. I was running wide a lot. I had to try to be clever with the front tire pressure and tucked behind a rider. It’s been a long weekend and I’m looking forward to see how we’ll manage in Japan next week.”

Team HRC banks more important points as the tenth WorldSBK round concludes at Motorland Aragón, with riders Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge completing both the day’s races, and now three rounds in a row, inside the top ten.

Eighth and eleventh on the grid for Sunday’s ten-lap Superpole race, Lecuona and Vierge were eager for more strong results. The race ran in cool, dry conditions (16°C air temp., 22° track temp.), with both riders getting away well when the lights went out. Ninth through lap one, Iker passed Locatelli and soon moved up into seventh. With two riders ahead of him in the same chasing group, Lecuona worked hard to move in on his closest rivals, but with the limited number of laps available, he was unable to improve any further on his position and crossed the line seventh. When the race began, Xavi tucked in behind his team-mate and way lying tenth through the first corners. Passing Rinaldi to progress to ninth on lap three, Vierge held that position for the best part of the race. Able to close in on, and pass, Locatelli on lap eight, the Spaniard battled van der Mark in the final stages, ultimately completing today’s sprint in ninth place.

The second of the weekend’s 18-lap Superbike races began in the early afternoon. Thanks to their Superpole race results, Lecuona and Vierge started this final (dry) race from seventh and ninth position. The Team HRC duo oscillated between eighth and eleventh in the initial stages as they worked to get into a rhythm. Lying ninth on lap five, Iker worked to pass Locatelli over the course of the next few laps. That done, the Spaniard held eighth all the way to the line to score more important championship points. Tenth for a good part of the race and setting almost identical times to those immediately ahead, Vierge meanwhile ran a consistent second half of the race to also secure a top ten finish.

As this tenth round of the 2024 championship concludes, Lecuona positions eleventh in the general standings with a total of 105 points, with Vierge just one point behind (104) in twelfth place. Team HRC will be back on track for round eleven, the penultimate race weekend of the 2024 season, taking place on 11-13 October at the Estoril Circuit in Portugal.

MXGP
Team HRC’s Tim Gajser wasn’t quite able to pull-off his sixth world title, as despite a second overall at this MXGP of Castilla La Manche, he missed out by just 10 points. It was still an excellent effort by the Slovenian though and he deserves a lot of credit for the way his has battled for the duration of this longest ever World Motocross Championship.

Coming in the weekend, he knew he needed everything to go right if he was to stand on the top step of the podium, but unfortunately on a track that was exceptionally difficult to pass on, he wasn’t able to get into the positions in order to close up that points gap. A second place in the first moto still left him with a chance, but after being forced off the track in the first turn of race two, he salvaged as much as he could by ending up in third place, but that wasn’t quite enough for either the GP overall or the championship.

After 59 races, to lose by only 10 points was difficult to handle but as Gajser handled himself with dignity and true sportsmanship when speaking to the associated press afterwards, paying due credit to the eventual champion, but promising that he would be back again in 2025 looking to regain the title that he won in 2016, 2019, 2020 and 2022.

In a season filled with a lot of highs – including a maiden victory at the MXGP of Czech Republic, and an excellent one-one performance in Switzerland, the #243 now puts on the Slovenian colours and tries to get the tiny country their best ever finish in the Motocross of Nations, at the Matterley Basin track in England next weekend.

After an excellent outing in China last time out, Ruben Fernandez was hoping for more of the same in what is a home GP for the Spaniard. Unfortunately, the tight, hard-pack terrain wasn’t to the #70’s liking and although he fought hard every lap, he was only able to manage 13-8 results in this season-finale. It wasn’t what he was looking for, but it is still another good effort after returning from injury just over one month ago. Like his teammate, Fernandez will also be lining at the Motocross of Nations, where Spain have a great chance of getting on the podium, which would be their countries best ever result.