Lorenzo conquers Qatar

The bright lights from the IPL were competing with the 5.4m watts shining in Qatar as the MotoGP season roared to a fascinating start in front of just under 10,000 fans with new regulations that delivered stunning wheel-to-wheel racing that promises a mouth-watering season ahead.

Honda, the defending champions, were again expected to dominate although it was the Yamaha of Jorge Lorenzo that was fastest on the night. Engine sizes have increased from 800cc to 1,000cc with Honda rumoured to have found an additional 250bhp.

This additional power makes it harder for riders to control their bikes, although it also allows them to compensate for minor mistakes. However, this was hardly evident as numerous riders slithered into the kitty litter throughout practice.

Governing body Dorna’s decision to allow satellite teams to own and develop their engines rather than lease them from manufacturer teams has been vindicated by the presence of nine new bikes on the grid. It may take a couple of transitional seasons to see them close the gap on the factory teams although this move represents the future of MotoGP.

Last season Casey Stoner took a clean sweep of victory, pole position and fastest lap in Qatar and his times in winter practice indicated that he will again lead from the front. 

He is one rider that looks well-equipped to handle the more powerful bikes being the only man to have been able to tame the Ducati. Stoner had every reason to enter the race with confidence having won at the Losail circuit four times previously.

This looked to be the case until the final moments of qualifying when Lorenzo produced a stunning lap to take pole.
 
The surprise package was Britain’s Cal Crutchlow, riding his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine to take the final position on the front row of the grid.

However, it was Dani Pedrosa who once again proved he is the man to watch off the line as he stormed from 7th position on the grid up to 3rd, leading to a fascinating tussle throughout much of the race between him, Lorenzo and Stoner.

Lorenzo held onto first place before being passed by Stoner at the end of the 1km main straight at the start of the third lap. The young Spaniard then tracked last season’s champion for the duration of the race until he made his move with just three of the 22 laps still to go.

Second quickly became third as Stoner’s Honda teammate, Pedrosa, out-braked him on the first turn to take a second position that he would not relinquish, ultimately finishing 0.852 seconds behind Lorenzo.

Behind them was an equally fascinating game of cat-and-mouse between the Monster colleagues, Crutchlow and Dovizioso, in a battle that is already being billed as one that will guarantee the winning rider his seat for the following season.

The English rider tracked the exhaust of the Italian for much of the race before making his successful move on Lap 17.  Despite Dovizioso’s attempts to re-pass, Crutchlow held on to equal his best ever result in MotoGP.

Valentino Rossi, who has won MotoGP races on four different types of machinery, last tasted victory at Losail in 2010 although he has been well off the pace in testing.
 
The radical Desmosedici GP12 has failed to deliver, meaning the most popular rider is likely to leave his die-hard fans disappointed. The Doctor again struggled and looked visibly uncomfortable with the handling, leaving the despondent Desmosedici driver way down the field in 10th. Nicky Hayden, riding the same factory machine, managed a more creditable 6th.

For those interested in comparisons with the Bahrain F1 circuit, the Losail track is marginally shorter at 5.38km and has 16 turns. While the fastest lap on these new larger bikes was in the 1:55’s the fastest lap recorded in a car was a GP2 Asia series race in 2009 by Nico Hulkenburg with a lap time of 1:35.