1996 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season

Season summary

Honda's Mick Doohan continued his domination of the 500 class with 8 victories. His Repsol Honda team-mate, Àlex Crivillé beat him to the line twice in Austria and the Czech Republic. Luca Cadalora, now with the Kanemoto Honda team took two wins for the third consecutive year. Suzuki's hopes were dashed when Daryl Beattie suffered head injuries in a pre-season crash. He returned only to crash in Spain then two races later in France which effectively ended his career. Loris Capirossi won his first 500 Grand Prix when Crivillé collided with his team-mate, Doohan on the last lap of the Australian round. A new European team made its debut with the Elf team using a Swissauto V4 sidecar engine in an ROC chassis. It proved to be fast but unreliable. Honda introduced the NSR500V, a V twin as a cost effective alternative for privateer teams.

Max Biaggi claimed his third consecutive 250 championship for Aprilia. Haruchika Aoki repeated as the 125 champion for Honda. Newcomers winning their first Grands Prix were Norifumi Abe in the 500 class, Olivier Jacque in the 250 class and Valentino Rossi in the 125 class.