2016 MotoGP World Championship

Jorge Lorenzo was the defending world champion, having secured his third MotoGP title and fifth overall Championship title at the 2015 Valencian Community Grand Prix.[1]

The riders' championship title was won for the third time by Marc Márquez, after his fifth victory of the season at the Japanese Grand Prix has given him an unassailable lead over his title rivals Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi – who both crashed out at Motegi – with three races remaining.[2][3] Márquez's title marked a return to the top step for Honda after a difficult 2015 campaign for its factory team. Márquez ultimately won the championship by 49 points.

Reigning champion Lorenzo won three of the first six races to lead the title race, but very poor wet weather form during wet races in mid-season curtailed his title bid along with no wins in the dry until the season-ending race in Valencia. Rossi has been the most consistent title challenger, yet he has crashed out of three races up until Márquez's decisive victory in Japan. The Yamaha team has suffered a severe win drought from June onwards, going eight races without a win before Márquez has clinched the title. The drought reached ten races before Lorenzo's Valencian triumph, in his final race for the manufacturer before his move to Ducati in 2017. Rossi has clinched the runner-up position by 16 points from Lorenzo, while their performances earned Yamaha the teams' championship, although Honda won the manufacturers' championship. The only rookie in this season was Tito Rabat – who clinched the rookie of the year award. LCR Honda rider, Cal Crutchlow, achieved the top independent rider award; winning races at Brno and Phillip Island and finished in 7th place in the championship with 141 points. Ducati and Suzuki both have won at least one race during the season, with Ducati's first win marking the first non Yamaha or Honda win for six years.

The 2016 season saw numerous records in regards to race winners. Cal Crutchlow, Jack Miller, Andrea Iannone and Maverick Viñales each won their first races in the premier class, the first time that four new winners had emerged in a MotoGP season. Between the Italian Grand Prix in May and the San Marino Grand Prix in September, eight riders – Lorenzo, Rossi, Miller, Márquez, Iannone, Crutchlow, Viñales and Dani Pedrosa – won in eight successive races, surpassing the previous record of seven, between the 1999 Imola Grand Prix and the 2000 South African Grand Prix. With a win for Andrea Dovizioso in Malaysia further adding to the tally, the total of nine winners was also a record for a single premier class season,[4] surpassing the previous record of eight in the 2000 season.[5] This season also marked the first non-factory teams to win a race since the 2006 season, with wins for Marc VDS from Miller (at the Dutch TT) and for LCR from Crutchlow (at the Czech and Australian Grands Prix).

The following Grands Prix took place in 2016:[6][7][8]

Round	Date	Grand Prix	Circuit
1	20 March ‡	Commercial Bank Grand Prix of Qatar	Losail International Circuit
2	3 April	Gran Premio Motul de la República Argentina	Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo
3	10 April	Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas	Circuit of the Americas
4	24 April	Gran Premio Red Bull de España	Circuito de Jerez
5	8 May	Monster Energy Grand Prix de France	Bugatti Circuit
6	22 May	Gran Premio d'Italia TIM	Mugello Circuit
7	5 June	Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya	Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
8	26 June	Motul TT Assen	TT Circuit Assen
9	17 July	GoPro Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland	Sachsenring
10	14 August	NeroGiardini Motorrad Grand Prix von Österreich	Red Bull Ring
11	21 August	HJC Helmets Grand Prix České republiky[9]	Brno Circuit
12	4 September	Octo British Grand Prix	Silverstone Circuit
13	11 September	Gran Premio TIM di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini	Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli
14	25 September	Gran Premio Movistar de Aragón	Motorland Aragón
15	16 October	Motul Grand Prix of Japan	Twin Ring Motegi
16	23 October	Michelin Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix	Phillip Island Circuit
17	30 October	Shell Malaysia Motorcycle Grand Prix	Sepang International Circuit
18	13 November	Gran Premio Motul de la Comunitat Valenciana	Circuit Ricardo Tormo

‡ = Night race

A provisional entry list was announced on 7 November 2015.[11]

Team Constructor Motorcycle No. Rider Rounds Aprilia Racing Team Gresini       Aprilia Aprilia RS-GP 6 Stefan Bradl[12] All 19 Álvaro Bautista[13] All Ducati Team Ducati Ducati Desmosedici GP16 04 Andrea Dovizioso[14] All 29 Andrea Iannone[13] 1–14, 17–18[lower-alpha 1] 51 Michele Pirro[16] 13–14[lower-alpha 1] 8 Héctor Barberá[17] 15–16 51 Michele Pirro[18] 6, 10 Octo Pramac Yakhnich[19] Ducati Desmosedici GP15[13] 9 Danilo Petrucci[13] 1, 5–18 51 Michele Pirro[20] 2–4 45 Scott Redding[21] All Avintia Racing Ducati Desmosedici GP14[13] 8 Héctor Barberá[13] 1–14, 17–18 7 Mike Jones[17] 15–16 76 Loris Baz[22] 1–6, 9–12, 14–18 51 Michele Pirro[23] 7–8 12 Javier Forés[24] 13 Aspar Team MotoGP Pull & Bear Aspar Team 50 Eugene Laverty[13] All 68 Yonny Hernández[25]       All Repsol Honda Team Honda Honda RC213V 26 Dani Pedrosa[26] 1–15, 18[lower-alpha 2] 73 Hiroshi Aoyama[27][28] 15[lower-alpha 2] 7 17 69 Nicky Hayden[29] 16 93 Marc Márquez[30] All LCR Honda 35 Cal Crutchlow[31] All Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS       43 Jack Miller[32] 1–10, 12–13, 15–18 69 Nicky Hayden[33] 14 53 Esteve Rabat[34] All Red Bull KTM Factory Racing[35] KTM KTM RC16 36 Mika Kallio[36] 18 Team Suzuki Ecstar       Suzuki Suzuki GSX-RR 25 Maverick Viñales[13] All 41 Aleix Espargaró[13] All Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha Yamaha YZR-M1 46 Valentino Rossi[37]         All 99 Jorge Lorenzo[38] All Yamalube Yamaha Factory Racing Team 21 Katsuyuki Nakasuga[39] 15 Monster Yamaha Tech 3 38 Bradley Smith[13] 1–11, 15–18 22 Alex Lowes[40] 12–14 44 Pol Espargaró[41] All

Key Regular rider Wildcard rider Replacement rider

Notes

• Starting in 2016, Michelin has become the series' official tyre supplier following Bridgestone's withdrawal from the category.[44] Dorna have also agreed a rule change to the 2016 regulations to increase the wheel size from 16.5 inches to 17 inches (similar to Moto2 and Moto3).[45]
• The previous Factory and Open classes will be merged: every bike must adopt the unified electronic package (ECU and software).[46] Each rider will be able to use up to seven engines in a season, albeit with frozen specifications, and the maximum fuel tank capacity will be 22 litres.[47] Factories without a dry win between 2013 and 2015 will still be allowed to use 12 engines with free development, but in case of a determined number of podiums or wins scored during 2016 the factory will lose these benefits for the next season.[47] Similarly, any manufacturer not scoring a single podium in 2016 will gain those concessions in 2017.

• The official website of Grand Prix motorcycle racing