Moto GP Qatar

[Rod Richardson]

Moto GP
Night shift in Qatar. Free Practice


The aliens are at it again with Lorenzo topping FP 3 on soft rubber while Stoner elected to stick with the hard tyres. Crutchlow and Dovisioso are right up there at the moment . Spies tripped over, damaged No 1 bike and went back out again but engine was misfiring. The speed of the Ducatis is good but they are still having handling problems.

Moto 2
Luthi leads the way in all FPs to date. Should see some excellent racing while the QMMF / Moriwaki framed bikes go at it in an attempt to avoid the wooden spoon award. So far they’re over 4 seconds down on the best time.

Moto 3
Cortese the fastest to date and I’m looking forward to watching the inaugural race..

[jens]

I have to say Moto GP qualifying reminded me a bit of the F1 situation. Both Vettel and Stoner dominated last year, but by 2012 the advantage of RBR and Honda are gone, so we could be in for a closer season! Yamaha 1-3-4-6. Impressive! Let's see, what will the race bring for them. Crutchlow was very impressive, but based on his career so far he seems more of a qualifier than racer, sort of de Puniet. So I'm expecting him to lose a couple of spots tomorrow. It also looks like Dovizioso didn't lose anything by quitting Honda.

Pedrosa and Rossi are big disappointments. Hayden and Barbéra show that Ducati isn't that awful. Barbéra in particular seems like one of few riders, who can actually adapt to that bike. Already last year he was best of the private Ducatis. Maybe that could elevate him to Ducati works seat in the future. :) Nice debut by Bradl, he was even 3rd for a short period of time during quali.

In Moto2 and Moto3 obviously the season favourites are Marquez and Vinales respectively. But especially Moto2 will be a close season throughout the field as several strong riders (Smith, Redding, de Angelis, Elias) qualified way back, who you would normally expect to be close to the front.

[darkstar]

oh dear, what´s going on with rossi? reallye a shame...but i´m quite happy with bradl´s pace. cant wait for the race. also cortese did good, hope he can win!

[Allyc85]

Come on Cal :D :D :D :D :D

[NinjaMaster]

Final Qualifying positions:

MotoGP
Pos No. Rider Bike Time Diff Diff Previous
1 99 Jorge LORENZO YAMAHA 1'54.634
2 1 Casey STONER HONDA 1'54.855 0.221 0.221
3 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW YAMAHA 1'55.022 0.388 0.167
4 11 Ben SPIES YAMAHA 1'55.512 0.878 0.490
5 69 Nicky HAYDEN DUCATI 1'55.637 1.003 0.125
6 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO YAMAHA 1'55.858 1.224 0.221
7 26 Dani PEDROSA HONDA 1'55.905 1.271 0.047
8 8 Hector BARBERA DUCATI 1'55.983 1.349 0.078
9 6 Stefan BRADL HONDA 1'56.063 1.429 0.080
10 17 Karel ABRAHAM DUCATI 1'56.198 1.564 0.135
11 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA HONDA 1'56.521 1.887 0.323
12 46 Valentino ROSSI DUCATI 1'56.813 2.179 0.292
13 5 Colin EDWARDS SUTER 1'57.644 3.010 0.831
14 14 Randy DE PUNIET ART 1'58.266 3.632 0.622
15 41 Aleix ESPARGARO ART 1'58.520 3.886 0.254
16 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ BQR-FTR 1'58.795 4.161 0.275
17 51 Michele PIRRO FTR 1'59.085 4.451 0.290
18 54 Mattia PASINI ART 1'59.195 4.561 0.110
19 9 Danilo PETRUCCI IODA 1'59.664 5.030 0.469
20 22 Ivan SILVA BQR-FTR 2'00.493 5.859 0.829
21 77 James ELLISON ART 2'00.757 6.123 0.264


Was nice to come home from camping to see this result, variety up the front (Lorenzo and Stoner aside) and Rossi still struggling (sorry, I just don't like the guy). Seems the Hondas are having significant chattering issues still and HRC boss, Shuhei Nakamoto, was right in saying that the Yamaha is the best bike. Still, on hard tires I still Casey 'the racer' will come out and win the race in a tianic battle to the end with a serious Yamaha battle for the final podium spot behind them. I'm really happy for Cal and Dovi to be so competitive on their satellite bikes, hats off to Yamaha for the new M1 they have supplied. Also, I hope Nicky's qualifying pace can be replicated in the race, he had a torrid time of things on the 800cc bikes, hopefully the new 1000s suit him better. Well, better be off to bed soon, it'll be an early mornin!

Oddspot - Ben Spies had a weird crash whereby he got dragged by his Yamaha around a corner, not because he hung on trying to save it but because he got caught on the 'protective' brake guard on his handlebar. :rolleyes:

[NinjaMaster]

And a very nice start to the year provided by the Moto3 class. Vinales provides the predicatable win, he's an insane talent, Fenali - wowee what a debut! and Sandro Cortese I think is destined to be one of those consistent top 5 guys without the raw speed to ever be really good. Stoked with Arthur Sissis debut, any other time that would be really big news a debut like that but Romano Fenali, wow.

[NinjaMaster]

Must. Calm. Down. After. Moto2. Race.

[NinjaMaster]

Reeeaaalllyyy good start to the MotoGP season with great battles in all classes. Casey looked like stabilising his lead then his tires appeared to go off but it may have been his back injury flaring up again or arm pump. Lorenzo was predictably fast throughout, Pedrosa impressively fast to the end which I didn't(but should have) expect. Ride of the race would've been Hector Barbera if he didn't stuff it up and Bradl was super impressive on debut. It's gonna be a good year.

[Allyc85]

Summed it up pretty well there Ninja.

Chuffed for Cal to get 4th after a tight battle against Dovi, the top 3 were in a completely different race to them, let alone the CRTs!

[donKey jote]

Spanish Armada :D :D :D

[Rod Richardson]

All round great racing. Good to see Pedrosa do well after some rather disappointing (for him) results in practice sessions.

Moto 3 race race produced some great battles. Very impressed by performances of young Italian Fenati and Aussia Sissis...

[patnicholls]

I've just about got down off the ceiling after the Moto2 race when the big class served up a treat, not to mention the promising Moto3 debut.

Great start to the season.

[jens]

Yes, indeed an interesting start to the season. :)

While there has been a big influx of young Spaniards into Moto championships, Fenati is finally a real Italian hope there. Especially with Rossi fading, future was looking a bit dark for them.

Moto2 was fantastic, 100% action throughout the race. Marquez proved his status as a title favourite despite missing winter testing due to injury! Although IMO his win this time is slightly tainted due to that controversial move on Lüthi...

In MotoGP Honda proved to be better in the race than in qualifying, all four Hondas were going better in race trim. Great scrap for Top3 positions, it has a potential to be a close season. Crutchlow had a good race too, let’s see, how he can keep it up for the rest of the season. Strong debut by Bradl, as mentioned above.

Rossi? Well, the stunning thing is that Ducati has tried to do everything to make Vale feel more comfortable since his arrival, but it has been getting worse... Also I have thought that actually Rossi has never seemed the same since his 2010 crash... Since his comeback he was mainly getting 3rd-4th places and after switching to Ducati Hayden has been almost matching him, now even beating.

[52Paddy]

I watched the race yesterday thinking it was live. D'oh! Great start to the year nonetheless - will be keeping an eye on those Tech 3 boys. They look fast :D