Review MotoGP Losail race 1

Yamaha won the alleged Ducati circuit for the 9th time

We were obviously spot on with our “insider tip” Johann Zarco in the run-up to the Losail Grand Prix, see our summary on the Saturday before the 1st race in Qatar on this page. The Frenchman is considered a genius for being strong with worn tires and was therefore brimming with confidence in difficult conditions. Thanks to a perfect final corner, he grabbed Joan Mir on the start-finish straight and became the best Ducati rider in the first race of the year. On the Losail International Circuit, known by many as the “Ducati circuit”, a Yamaha won for the ninth time in 17 races. We had emphasized this statistic before, when it was 8 to 5 for the Japanese in the duel with Ducati. As a justification, we cited the example of WorldSBK record world champion Jonathan Rea, who won the races in Qatar from turns 1 to 16 in front of our eyes in 2019. The Irishman from Northern Ireland won, although Ducati pilots Bautista and Davies had saved him half a second per lap on the straight. Quite similar in the first GP of the year, Maverick Viñales, who did everything right and struck at the right moment.

Some accomplishments were more than impressive

Because Pol Espargaró already pointed this out before the race, it should be mentioned again at this point: The rookies and drivers with bike or just team changes had difficulties that had never existed before the start of the season. Before the 2021 season, around three times as many test days were available and this on different racetracks. Instead of the usual 12, this time there were only 4 test days due to the sandstorm, otherwise it would have been at least 5. With this in mind, Pol’s performance is more than impressive. To have achieved a solid top ten result for Honda straight away in the first race can be built on. In Johann Zarco’s hymn of praise for his powerful Ducati engine, one shouldn’t forget that it was the driver who took second place as the best Ducati rider. It is always interesting to see how many journalists pounce on such details when reporting for their headlines. Jack Miller on P9 had no weaker engine than the fast French!

The best rookie convinced across the board
Even more impressive, of course, was Enea Bastianini’s sensational 10th place. All KTM riders, plus HRC replacement Bradl, the man with the most test kilometers and old master Rossi, it couldn’t be better for a rookie. The Suzukis were strong and the reigning world champion Mir narrowly missed the podium. His team-mate Rins and Aleix Espargaró don’t need to hide either. With 5th place ahead of these two, Fabio Quartararo was disappointed, but he still has plenty of time to improve. His Monster Energy teammate showed how to do it and he is one of the few who has insight into his data records.

The winners are known – what about those who are beaten?

Rossi and Quartararo, like Miller and many others, struggled with diminishing tires. With the exception of Franco Morbidelli, practically all drivers heard the same explanation that it was not quite enough. With Morbido, he has always had problems at night for days and is therefore still puzzling with his team how they should get this under control. He was fine in the heat, but as soon as it got cooler, he lost to the best of around a second per lap. Alex Rins said he forgot to activate his launch control before the start. We are among the critics of such gimmicks and believe that the best start should be made by the best driver in this discipline and not by technical tricks. At Morbidelli, this thing supposedly activated itself on Sunday in between, which also speaks against such aids.

The rest of the drivers and their missed objectives
For Stefan Bradl, it wasn’t a technical problem that led to the missed finish of the top ten. The German built himself a better result with his poor 17th place on the grid. Under these circumstances, rank 12 was acceptable, but still disappointing for someone who was at the forefront of the tests. The other two rookies, along with Bastianini, held up nicely, but, like many others, struggled with diminishing tires. Therefore, Jorge Martin and Luca Marini were not completely satisfied. For them, however, the double race in Qatar is a clear advantage, which is why they should not be written off too early. For Alex Marquez and Takaaki Nakagami, the main thing is to stay seated in the second Losail race. Neither of them could really explain the falls.

The oranges – without pole and test advantage, as in the previous year, the backbenchers again
At KTM, on the other hand, hops and malt seem lost. Without Pol Espargaró and their test advantage from the previous year, they made a terrible disgrace. If before that racing boss Pit Beirer even claimed that their strength lies in the racing pace, they seem to be stinking off their heads. Oliveira was initially in the top 10 and then fell back to P13, right behind team-mate Binder. The South African stated after the race that he fought with blunt weapons. He has to hope for the Europe opener in Portugal for an increase. With 3 points, KTM wears the red lantern in the manufacturers’ standings after the first lap and there is hardly any improvement in sight.

Result and world championship status after the first race of the MotoGP season

Team classification: Monster Energy Yamaha on Top – KTM with red lantern

The brand classification after the 1st race on the alleged Ducati track

Schedule for the second Qatar weekend

From Saturday to Sunday the changeover was to summer time, which only affects Europe and which is why the time difference to Qatar was reduced by one hour. The races take place early on Sunday evening. Of course, we report daily in our proven live blog and in a summary. It doesn’t get much faster than ours. The top ten are immediately visible on our site after they cross the target. The response from our readers was very positive and we would also like to thank everyone who reports live with tips, which we can use immediately in the best possible way. We are currently no longer showing the provisional calendar for 2021 because hardly anyone is seriously anticipating the overseas races, among other things. But races such as Assen, Silverstone and Sachsenring are also endangered by the pandemic if visitors are not allowed.

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