Race starts have been tricky on the recent MotoGP games with the brutal and difficult AI. It’s very easy to get swamped and overtaken by AI bikes, who always seem to get a better start than you. It’s annoying when you always seem to lose places on the start.

But I think I just found a good method on the last few games to get a good race start. It’s given me better launches to the point where I can make up places or at least hold position against the AI, and in online lobbies I’ve been very strong on race starts since I started doing this.

Here’s what I do to get a better launch at the start:

1. Wait until the lights turn red.
2. Apply about one third accelerator
3. Move to full accelerator when the lights go out

And that’s really it! You’re just applying the throttle when waiting for the lights to go out, but NOT full throttle. Just partial throttle and then progressing to full accelerator when the race starts.

More Detailed Steps

Let’s run through the race start procedure in a bit more detail in steps.

Step #1 – Wait until the lights in the top left corner first come on. There’s two rows of red lights that come on. That’s the signal that the race is about to start in a few seconds, but not just yet. Once the lights come on, they’ll go out again several seconds later (the delay varies) and that’s when the race starts.

Step #2 – As soon as you see the red light come on, move to partial throttle (but NOT full throttle). This is the crucial part. Apply about one third to one half of the accelerator input and hold it there while the red lights remain on.

Step #3 – Keep your eye on the red lights, and as soon as they go out, move to full accelerator. If you’ve not got assisted starts enabled, you’ll also have to release the clutch the start as well. How quickly you can apply full throttle depends on your assists level:

• Full accelerator riding aid – You can move from partial to full throttle right away.
• Disabled accelerator riding aid – Move to full throttle more progressively.

What Not To Do On Race Starts

The crucial point to getting a stronger start is to hold it on partial throttle until the lights go out, and then move to full throttle.

The cruder method of just slamming on full throttle until the lights go out will work for assists users at least, but it doesn’t give you a very strong start. You get a lot of wheelspin and you’ll be overtaken by nearby riders who are more progressive with their throttle on the start.

And riders who’ve turned off the accelerator neural aid/assist, or are using a lower TC value on their ECU dash, must be progressive on the throttle anyway on the start, or they’ll fall off the back of the bike.

Therefore it’s important NOT to over-apply the accelerator on race starts, even for players using riding aids, as it won’t give you a very good start even if it still works.

How To Avoid Being Taken Out On Race Starts

Race starts in online lobbies especially are absolute carnage. Even doing your own thing perfectly fine, you’ll still get taken out a lot. And the AI on the last few games have been no better either, always aggressively barging you on race starts.

Here’s some ways to reduce the risk of being taken out on race starts (though it will still happen sometimes unfortunately):

• Try to run deeper into the first corner if it’s not a hairpin, to avoid being hit from behind. I know this is tricky on MotoGP bikes especially as you can run off the track, but try to coast on a little longer into the braking zone, brake a bit later and tap repeatedly and quickly on the both the front and rear brake to get the bike slowed down.
• On wider tracks, find a wider or tighter line off the racing line for just the race start, that other bikes won’t be using. Again it stops you being hit from behind so much.
• Avoid contact with other bikes as much as possible when leaning heavily (this is when you’re at most risk of falling off). Back out if need be and let others crash on their own.
• Focus more on just surviving on race starts rather than making up loads of places on the first corners. In online lobbies there’s always carnage at the start and you’ll make up places anyway without doing anything as loads of riders crash being too aggressive.