Enea “la Bestia” Bastianini (Esponsorama Ducati) – the rookie driving for the Avintia team finished a sensational tenth in his first Grand Prix. The Italian not only left Bradl behind on the Respsol Honda from Marquez, but also all KTM riders. With only a third of the test days available to the newbies compared to before, the performance of the Moto2 world champion of 2020 can hardly be overestimated.

Who will triumph on the edge of the desert this time – will a Yamaha win again?

As we explained before the first race of the season, the Losail International Circuit is anything but a Ducati track. Only those who never looked at the years since the premiere in 2004 could claim such nonsense. It doesn’t matter whether it is a Ducati manager or any fan, because many often forget a very important aspect: circuit races on long straights are only very rarely won. In Losail, Jonathan Rea provided the final proof of this in the WorldSBK event in October 2018. The Northern Irishman won three races in a row despite the blatant top speed disadvantage because he was the fastest from turns 1 to 16. This is exactly the recipe that Maverick Viñales used at the first Grand Prix of 2021. And so it came to the 9th Yamaha triumph at the 17th GP of Qatar in the premier class, while Ducati is only at 5 and Honda at their 3rd. In terms of podium positions, even Honda is behind Yamaha in second place in the statistics, even ahead of Ducati.

Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia – In the first half of the race, the Valentino Rossi student was on the road to victory for a long time, but then “Top Gun” Maverick attacked his Yamaha and later Johann Zarco also passed him and was the best Ducati rider ahead of the Italian.

Can the stumbled take the revenge on the second attempt?

Above all, Jack Miller was one of the most popular favorites, which was only due to his good performance in the tests. There is a difference between a fast lap and a race over the full distance that can hardly be greater. Let’s just think of Quartararo’s many poles without winning afterwards or Maverick’s frequent slumps in the previous year after sensational best times on the day before the race. But when it comes to over 22 laps, as in Losail on Sunday, the MotoGP very often has to be careful with the tires. Those who overuse their Michelins too early are out in the fight for the podium and have to try to save themselves over the distance. See also the statement by Fabio Quartararo on this page about the impressions of the best 6 drivers at the season opener in the report “Losail 2 driver voices”. It will be interesting to see whether Jack, Fabio and Valentino will have their problems under control on the second weekend.

Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) before the start of the first race of the season – the young Frenchman struggled early on with a falling rear tire, but still managed to get 5th. His recipe for a better result is to drive a little more gently and therefore less aggressively and therefore more gently on the tires.

Who will benefit most from the double race in Qatar?

We are happy to try again, which Pol Espargaró pointed out early on. Because there were only a third of test days available compared to previous years, the rookies and riders on bikes that were new to them were fundamentally at a disadvantage. It is in honor of the Repsol Honda newcomer that he did not name himself first, but rather the riders who had emerged from Moto2. A look at the results in double races last year reveals a mixed picture. For example, Valentino Rossi had improved the most in Jerez in the 2nd race in Jerez, and we think it was a mistake to call him a rookie. Alex Marquez, on the other hand, scored twice as many points on this occasion as on the first weekend. For this reason, we ignore Spielberg with the horror crash in the 1st run. In Misano there was a step backwards instead of an increase for the only rookie Iker Lecuona. Aragon, on the other hand, brought a significant improvement for the Spaniard from the first to the second weekend. Regardless, it is an advantage for riders like MotoGP newbies and Pol to have another race under similar conditions to the first and on the same track.

Pol Espargaró before the start of the first race of the season in Losail – the Spaniard took 8th place at his premiere for Repsol Honda, which sounds modest at first glance. But in contrast to the LCR Honda drivers Alex Marquez and Takaaki Nakagami, he did not crash and left HRC veteran Bradl well behind. You can build on that and, above all, Honda was spared a debacle as it often did last year.

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 can be seen on our site immediately 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 really expects the overseas races, among other things.

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