1996 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season

Honda's Mick Doohan continued his domination of the 500 class with 8 victories.^[1] His Repsol Honda teammate, Àlex Crivillé beat him to the line twice in Austria and the Czech Republic.^[1] Luca Cadalora, now with the Kanemoto Honda team took two wins for the fourth consecutive year.^[1] Suzuki's hopes were dashed when Daryl Beattie suffered head injuries in a pre-season crash.^[1] He returned only to crash in Spain then two races later in France which effectively ended his career.^[1] Loris Capirossi won his first 500 Grand Prix when Crivillé collided with his teammate, Doohan on the last lap of the Australian round.^[1] A new European team made its debut with the Elf team using a Swissauto V4 sidecar engine in an ROC chassis.^[1] It proved to be fast but unreliable. Honda introduced the NSR500V, a V twin as a cost-effective alternative for privateer teams.^[1]

Max Biaggi claimed his third consecutive 250 championship for Aprilia.^[1] Haruchika Aoki repeated as the 125 champion for Honda.^[1] 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.^[1]

The following Grands Prix were scheduled to take place in 1996:^[2][3]

Round	Date	Grand Prix	Circuit
1	31 March	Marlboro Grand Prix of Malaysia	Shah Alam Circuit
2	7 April	Marlboro Indonesian Grand Prix	Sentul International Circuit
3	21 April	Marlboro Grand Prix of Japan	Suzuka Circuit
4	12 May	Gran Premio Lucky Strike de España	Circuito Permanente de Jerez
5	26 May	Gran Premio d'Italia Polini	Mugello Circuit
6	9 June	Grand Prix de France	Circuit Paul Ricard
7	29 June ††	Lucky Strike Dutch Grand Prix	TT Circuit Assen
8	7 July	Warsteiner Grand Prix Deutschland	Nürburgring
9	21 July	British Grand Prix	Donington Park
10	4 August	HB Motorrad Grand Prix Austria	A1-Ring
11	18 August	Grand Prix České republiky	Brno Circuit
12	1 September	Gran Premio IP Città di Imola	Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari
13	15 September	Gran Premi Marlboro de Catalunya	Circuit de Catalunya
14	6 October	GP Rio	Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet
15	20 October	Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix	Eastern Creek

†† = Saturday race

• The French Grand Prix moved from the Bugatti Circuit in Le Mans to the Circuit Paul Ricard due to overbid in Le Mans, the Bugatti Circuit returned in 2000.
• The Austrian Grand Prix returned from the calendar after a one-year absence and moved from the Salzburgring to the Österreichring, one year before the track was renamed as the A1-Ring.
• The Indonesian Grand Prix was added to the calendar.
• The Argentine Grand Prix was initially scheduled, but was eventually taken off the calendar.
• The European Grand Prix was renamed the Catalan Grand Prix.