The adventure of India and the exploration of unknown terrain
It's an absolute first for the LIQUI MOLY Husqvarna Intact GP team and the entire motorcycle world championship, which will contest its first Grand Prix in India from the 22nd to the 24th of September. The venue for this upcoming adventure is the Buddh International Circuit just outside New Delhi. Ayumu Sasaki and Moto3 shooting star Collin Veijer will be aiming for further career highlights, but Lukas Tulovic and injury returnee Darryn Binder are also looking forward to the challenge.
The Indian Grand Prix will be the first race event of the Motorcycle World Championship on this track, which has been thoroughly modernized in terms of safety and infrastructure. The modified layout covers a length of 5.01 kilometers and has a total of 13 corners, eight of which are right-handed and five left-hand corners. This track, which is considered fast and fluid, was also penned by the famous German race track designer Hermann Tilke. The longest straight is 1006 meters, one of the longest on the MotoGP calendar, which means that new top speed records are to be expected.
Ayumu Sasaki, who has managed to reduce his gap to the world championship leader to just four points in the last few races, is looking forward to the complex corner combinations. The 22-year-old Japanese is extremely excited about the seven-stop overseas trip, on which he hopes to work towards his dream of winning the 2023 World Championship title with continued consistent top performances.
Collin Veijer's success curve has been pointing steadily upwards and the young Dutchman is setting no lower goals for himself at the first-ever Indian Grand Prix. Advantageously, all of his Moto3 colleagues will start this exciting race weekend with zero experience. How well the Husqvarna will run on the Indian circuit remains to be seen, but the 18-year-old has often impressed with quick adaptability on tracks he is unfamiliar with.
As the Buddh International Circuit is completely new for all categories, the practice sessions on Friday will be extended. This will also be welcomed by the injury-plagued Darryn Binder, who hopes to be cleared to start on Thursday after suffering a back injury in Spielberg. The South African will be grateful for every extra minute because he not only has to get used to his Kalex again but also to the unusual layout with an uphill passage with a gradient of over eight percent and drops of up to ten percent. Team-mate Lukas Tulovic, for his part, will try to adapt quickly to the high demands in order to lay an important foundation in Saturday's qualifying for the 19-lap race on Sunday at 10:15 am German time.
The time difference between India and Central European Summer Time is three and a half hours. As usual, the entire spectacle will be broadcast by the Austrian channel ServusTV.
Schedule (according to CEST)
Friday, 22nd of September
05:30 – 06:20 Moto3 Practice 1
06:35 – 07:30 Moto2 Practice 1
07:45 – 08:55 MotoGP Practice 1
09:45 – 10:35 Moto3 Practice 2
10:50 – 11:45 Moto2 Practice 2
12:00 – 13:10 MotoGP Practice
Saturday, 23rd of September
05:40 – 06:10 Moto3 Practice 3
06:25 – 06:55 Moto2 Practice 3
07:10 – 07:40 MotoGP Free Practice 2
07:50 – 08:05 MotoGP Qualifying 1
08:15 – 08:30 MotoGP Qualifying 2
09:50 – 10:05 Moto3 Qualifying 1
10:15 – 10:30 Moto3 Qualifying 2
10:45 – 11:00 Moto2 Qualifying 1
11:10 – 11:25 Moto2 Qualifying 2
12:00 MotoGP-Sprint (12 Laps)
Sunday, 24th of September
07:40 – 07:50 MotoGP Warm-Up
09:00 Moto3-Race (17 Laps)
10:15 Moto2-Race (19 Laps)
12:00 MotoGP-Race (24 Laps)