Hotels for MotoGP San Marino Grand Prix 2026

The San Marino round is one of the closest things MotoGP has to a home race, with Valentino Rossi's legacy still shaping the atmosphere even years after his retirement, and the Adriatic coast fills with fans on scooters and motorbikes who've ridden in for the weekend. The circuit's tight, flowing layout rewards precision over brute speed, making for close, technical racing rather than long straight-line battles.

Misano World Circuit opened in 1972 on the flat coastal plain near Rimini, and for decades ran clockwise before being reprofiled and reversed to an anti-clockwise layout in 2008, its current 4.2-kilometre, sixteen-corner form. In 2012 it was renamed in memory of Marco Simoncelli, the charismatic rider from nearby Coriano who lost his life at Sepang in 2011, and the circuit has carried his name ever since.

Grand Prix racing returned here in 2007 under the San Marino and Rimini Riviera banner, and it quickly became the emotional heart of the Italian season — this is effectively home turf for Valentino Rossi, born just up the coast at Tavullia, whose famous yellow-clad fans turn the grandstands into a wall of colour.

Set among the beach clubs and resorts of the Adriatic Riviera, the flowing seaside track has produced tense, tactical racing and remains one of the most atmospheric rounds on the calendar.

Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli sits just inland from the Adriatic coast south of Rimini, a smooth flowing track named in memory of the beloved Italian rider. Misano Adriatico and Riccione are resort towns whose beach clubs and restaurants make an unexpectedly relaxed race base, with the Adriatic close enough to visit between sessions.

Rimini, 12 kilometres north, adds a historic old town with Roman monuments. The San Marino GP fills the whole Riviera, so book early; September on the Adriatic coast is warm and beautiful, and the Italian atmosphere at Misano is second to none.