The new season of the MotoGP gets underway in March 2018 as the action in Qatar launches the new edition of the 19-race series. Heading back to the Championship as reigning champion is Marc Marquez who held off the challenge of Italy’s Andrea Dovizioso to land his fourth title in the last five seasons. Marquez is 7/2 at Bet365* (betting odds taken on March 13th at 8:27 p.m.) to win it all again. British interest rests mainly on Cal Crutchlow who failed to get a win on the board last season on his Honda, finishing ninth in the Championship final standings.
2017 MotoGP Champion
Spain’s Marc Marquez collected six wins last season on his way to the title, putting in a powerful finish with three successes in his final six races to put the hopes of Andrea Dovizioso to bed. It was a strong challenge from the Italian though who also earned himself six wins across the course of the season. But it was really the extra consistency of just landing podium finishes when he wasn’t winning that got Marquez there. He is the star of the show, the one to beat. The only other riders to land a win during the season were Maverick Vinales, Daniel Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi.
MotoGP Riders Championship Betting 2018 Winner Odds*
Andrea Dovizioso 6/4, Marc Marquez 7/2, Maverick Vinales 5/1, Valentino Rossi 7/1, Johann Zarco 15/2, Jorge Lorenzo 8/1, Daniel Pedrosa 18/1, Andrea Iannone 20/1, Cal Crutchlow 28/1, bar 40/1* (betting odds taken on March 13th at 8:27 p.m.)
2018 MotoGP Season Races
- 18 March – Gulf Oil Grand Prix of Qatar
- 8 April – Gran Premio Motul de la República Argentina
- 22 April – Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas
- 6 May – Gran Premio Red Bull de España
- 20 May – HJC Helmets Grand Prix de France
- 3 June – Gran Premio d’Italia Oakley
- 17 June – Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya
- 1 July – Motul TT Assen
- 15 July – GoPro Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland
- 5 August – Monster Energy Grand Prix Czech Republic
- 12 August – Motorrad Grand Prix von Österreich Red Bull Ring, Spielberg
- 26 August – Octo British Grand Prix
- 9 September – Gran Premio Tribul MasterCard di San Marino
- 23 September – Gran Premio Movistar de Aragón
- 7 October – PTT Thailand Grand Prix
- 21 October – Motul Grand Prix of Japan
- 28 October – Michelin Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix
- 4 November – Shell Malaysia Motorcycle Grand Prix
- 18 November – Community Gran Premio Motul de la Comunitat Valenciana
2018 MotoGP Teams
Naturally, a new season brings some changes to teams. Last year’s Moto2 champion Franco Morbidelli comes up to join the Marc VDS Honda team, and joining him there will be Thomas Luthi who was battling Morbidelli last season in Moto2. Cal Crutchlow has a new team mate at LCR Hondo in Takaaki Nakagami. Avintia Ducati have new riders in Esteve Rabat and Xavier Simeon. Scott Redding jumps off a Ducati to go to Aprilia, with Jack Miller replacing him at the Pramac Ducati team. Sam Lowes, Hector Barbera go down to Moto2 while Jonas Folger misses the season through injury.
Aprilia Racing Team: Aleix Espargaró, Scott Redding
Ducati Team: Andrea Dovizioso, Jorge Lorenzo
Alma Pramac: Danilo Petrucci, Jack Miller
Reale Avintia Racing: Xavier Siméon, Esteve Rabat
Ángel Nieto Team: Karel Abraham, Álvaro Bautista
EG 0,0 Marc VDS: Thomas Lüthi, Franco Morbidelli
Repsol Honda Team: Dani Pedrosa, Marc Márquez
LCR Honda: Takaaki Nakagami, Cal Crutchlow
Austria Red Bull KTM Factory Racing: Bradley Smith, Pol Espargaró
Team Suzuki Ecstar: Andrea Iannone, Álex Rins
Monster Yamaha Tech 3: Johann Zarco, Hafizh Syahrin
Movistar Yamaha MotoGP: Maverick Viñales, Valentino Rossi
Andrea Dovizioso
The Italian will challenge on his Ducati after putting in a pretty good shift in his first season at MotoGP. That was six wins in his maiden season that he posted up at the premier class and still it wasn’t enough to topple Marquez. He was the closest thing to Marquez throughout the season though in what was an epic battle and he took the season all the way to the final race in Valencia where his challenge ended with him going off on turn eight. It was a thrilling battle and if the Ducati truly is going to be improved in handling with the horsepower that it has, along with improved handling, Dovizioso is likely to challenge. But can he actually go one better than 2017? He is leading the pack as 6/4 favourite at Bet365* (betting odds taken on March 13th at 8:27 p.m.).
Marc Marquez
The four-time champion has another good shot at the title this season as he has a much improved Honda. He wasn’t on the best ride for chunks of last season which says a lot about the man. There looks to be an improvement in acceleration for the Honda’s this season along with a new and improved engine. The new dynamic is that it will be quicker out of corners and that showed up well in pre-season testing. The reigning champion on what could be a better bike? It’s hard not to find appeal in that.
Maverick Viñales
With a cool name like that, you have to be riding a motorbike. Viñales went into last season as one of the frontrunners to get the title under his belt but could only come home a distant third in the Championship. His season got off with a real spark, getting three wins in the first five races. But his success in France in the fifth race was to be his last for the season, collecting only four podium finishes from there on out. It was really a disappointing conclusion and it will fascinatingly interesting to see if he can bounce back.
Valentino Rossi
2017 was just a poor season for Yamaha with Vinales not challenging and his teammate Valentino Rossi not getting a chance to get close to his 10th world title. Rossi’s season was nearly undone with a crash after France after what had been a fairly consistent start to the season. He actually broke his leg in that crash but still got back to take a title in the Netherlands. He’s been trying since 2009 to win his tenth MotoGP title. It may not be coming. The bike was an issue at times, lacking consistency and power last season for both Vinales and Rossi which didn’t help.
Cal Crutchlow
The British rider could be one of the big benefactors if the Honda bike has really come back stronger than ever this season. Crutchlow looked really good on the new ride in winter testing and was one of the best riders through testing actually. So that shows a lot of potential for Crutchlow to go a lot better than last season when he suffered five retirements and just the one podium finish. A strong start to the season would set up him up well as he looks for his first title. Will remain a long shot for the Championship though.
2018 MotoGP Predictions
The signs are that Honda are going to be stronger this season, handing more power and control to Marquez. He just has those incredible touches of control which continue to astound and amaze, notably in pulling off saves that no mere bike riding mortal should be able to do. Still, he crashes far too often, so if the new handling helps him stay on more, he has every chance of getting another Championship title under his belt. The challenge of Dovisio is still a little raw and you can’t help but be left feeling that 2017 was his big chance to land the MotoGP title and it may get harder from here on out with improvements to other challengers coming as well.
