On the weekend of 16th – 18th August, the Red Bull Ring will be entertaining fans with a blockbuster programme featuring the world’s top riders. As in 2023, the shorter MotoGP sprint race will also be contested. The organisers couldn’t have pack more racing thrills into a weekend if they had tried!
Compared to last year, the sprint format has undergone only minimal changes, and these concern free practice. In order to give the riders enough time to acclimatise themselves, there will once again be a free practice session on Friday morning.
FP2 will follow in the afternoon. The lap times in the 60-minute session will determine the line-up for qualifying. The Top Ten from FP2 will go straight through to Q2.
MotoGP at the Red Bull Ring
Powerful MotoGP programme
Another free practice session will follow on Saturday, before things really get down to business with qualifying segments Q1 and Q2. This is where the positions on the sprint and the Grand Prix starting grids will be fought for.
The first championship race of the MotoGP weekend will take place on Saturday at 15:00 with the sprint which, at 14 laps, is half the distance of the GP. The top nine finishers are awarded points towards the world championship. The sprint winner scores 12 points, the runner-up nine, the third-placed contestant seven and so on.
The warm-up will take place on Sunday morning. The riders will battle it out for victory in the 2024 Austrian Motorcycle Grand Prix starting at 14:00. The race distance is 28 laps. The GP winner scores 25 points, the runner-up 20, the third-placed contestant 16 and so on.
This means that a MotoGP contestant can score a maximum of 37 points in one weekend (12 points in the sprint, 25 points in the race). If you haven’t purchased your ticket for the MotoGP weekend yet, you’d better get a move on!
