MotoGP announces new qualifying format

MotoGP organisers have announced a new split qualifying system for next year which involves seeding riders into two groups based on free-practice results. The MotoGP starting grid is currently decided on riders' speed during an hour-long qualifying session on Saturday afternoon following two 45-minute free-practice sessions. Under the new format riders will be seeded into two qualifying groups based on their performances in those three free-practice rides, a MotoGP statement said. The 10 fastest riders from the free-practice sessions will be placed in Qualifying Practice 2 (QP2) with the others taking part in Qualifying Practice 1 (QP1), the statement added. The fastest two riders in in the 15-minute QP1 will advance to QP2, where a total of 12 riders will compete for the first 12 grid positions in a separate 15-minute session. The rest of the riders will take the remaining positions according to their times in QP1. The new procedure applies for MotoGP only.