MotoGP is back!!!
However it hasn't gone far. For reasons that I'm not sure have been fully explained, the MotoGP circus remains in Qatar for a second go at the Losail circuit in order to bulk out its skeletal, record-equallingly large 19-race calendar. Maybe Qatar is owed one from 2020. Anyway, it's a nice track and we're not paying for the lighting bills, so I suppose we should accept things gracefully. I can copy and paste bits of last week's thread because it's still completely applicable, so there are fringe benefits too.
When’s the thing getting underway? Practice is on Friday between 1.50pm and 8.45pm (local time, subtract 2 hours for BST) and after an afternoon of practice on Saturday, qualifying takes place at 5.30pm (Moto3), 6.25pm (Moto2) and 8pm (MotoGP). Sunday afternoon sees warm-up sessions for the three classes, and then races at the following times:
5pm: Moto3
6.20pm: Moto2
8pm: MotoGP
That felt good. Where are we in 2021? Just one round is in the record books so it would be premature to draw up a championship table. But if I did, Yamaha factory rider Maverick Vinales would be at the top, after he battled past four fast-starting Ducatis who seemed to struggle either with the windy conditions, or tyre life, or both. Also competitive were current champion Joan Mir, who had a similar gameplan of hanging back before fighting past the Ducatis but faded to fourth at the last corner, and Ducati riders Pecco Bagnaia and Johann Zarco, who jumped Mir at the end. Dreaming of better are Alex Rins and Jack Miller, who looked fast at times last Sunday but either failed to make progress (Rins) or eventually made too much of the opposite of progress (Miller). Aprilia were respectable. Honda, KTM and the Petronas Yamahas just looked out of it, in desecending order.
Moto2 and Moto3 were won by semi-veterans Sam Lowes and Jaume Masia, but many of us chose to be more excited by rookies Pedro Acosta and Izan Guevara in the juniors and Raul Fernandez and Cameron Beaubier in the intermediates. Or Moto2's Remy Gardner, who as Nova pointed out in-thread may be the closest thing to a Honda winner for a while.
Anyway, more MotoGP this weekend, this time without the distraction of an exciting Formula One race. Sounds good, right?