MotoGP 2023 Portuguese GP race date & time: How to watch it for free?

MotoGP is back for 2023 and the first race of the season is being held at Algarve International Circuit in Portugal also known as the Portimao Circuit. The 2022 season saw a fierce battle between Fabio Quartararo, Francesco Bagnaia and Aleix Espargaro for the Riders’ Championship. After having a terrible start, Bagnaia made the biggest comeback in the history of MotoGP to take home the crown for himself. He crossed managed to gap a deficit of 91 points to his nearest rival, Fabio Quartararo who ultimately came second. With eight bikes on the grid, Ducati easily walked away with the Constructors’ Championship trophy.

There is good news for fans of the sport in India because Viacom18 has secured the rights to broadcast. The entire season will be streamed on JioCinema which does not require a subscription. Compared to Formula 1, which moved to a private and more expensive platform this season, MotoGP has just become more accessible to the masses. It was already available on Discovery+ but one has to pay a yearly subscription fee for that. Another big news for Indian fans is that India is on the 2023 MotoGP calendar with the 14th race of the season planned to be held at the Buddh International Circuit.

For 2023, there have been some substantial changes in the rider lineup and some changes in the number of teams as well. Suzuki pulled the plug on its MotoGP journey at the end of last year and has not been replaced by anyone. RNF Racing which had been with Yamaha has now switched to Aprilia. This will give Aprilia a better chance at gaining more information about the RS-GP and also more ammunition to fight the Ducati echelon. Lastly, the Tech3 KTM Factory Racing team has been rebranded as Gas Gas Factory Racing Tech3.

With the Suzuki team no longer participating, Joan Mir moved to Repsol Honda. He replaced Pol Espargaro who will be seen riding atop the Gas Gas KTM machine. Mir’s previous teammate, Alex Rins is now part of the LCR Honda team. Enea Bastianini got a promotion to the main Ducatio Lenovo Team while Jack Miller moves to the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team. Other changes include Alex Marquez moving from LCR Honda to Gresini Racing MotoGP and Raul Fernandez moving from Tech3 KTM to RNF Aprilia. The only rookie on the grid this year will be Augusto Fernández who will be riding with GasGas Factory Racing Tech3

A major change in the weekend structure for MotoGP this year will be the introduction of ‘Sprint Races’. Each race will be preceded by a sprint which will be roughly half the length of the full race and only the top 9 riders will be awarded points. These sprint races will have their own standing which will not be part of the main races. The order in which the riders line up to the grid for the sprint and the main race will still be decided by two rounds of qualifying as before.

Here are the dates and timing for the first qualifying, sprint and main race of the 2023 season:

Qualifying
March 25 (Saturday) at 4:20 PM

Sprint Race

March 25 (Saturday) at 8:30 PM

Race

March 26 (Sunday) at 6:30 PM