Winner: Marc Marquez
Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Was Losail ever really a ‘weak circuit’ for Marc Marquez? He said both before and after the weekend that it was, but his performance in Qatar totally belied that idea – to the point where you wonder if the Spaniard was simply playing along with the narrative spun by a media corps terrified of another 18 MotoGP weekends with no genuine title battle to write about.
The fact is that Qatar was very much the usual story where Marquez was concerned. Pole position, sprint victory, grand prix victory and two fastest laps. He didn’t lead much of the grand prix but that was simply a case of him controlling his pace and managing his tyres. This looked exactly like the usual template. If that’s what a poor track for Marquez looks like, then one of the last straws his rivals had to clutch at has been rudely snatched away.
Loser: Francesco Bagnaia
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team
Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
This time it looked like it might just happen for ‘Pecco’. By his usual standards, Bagnaia hit the ground running on Friday. He didn’t have to squeak into Q2 like he had in the previous two rounds. For the first time this year, he was openly optimistic after the first day’s practice. He believed he could threaten factory Ducati team-mate Marquez this time around.
With Saturday’s conditions similar to Friday’s and his homework done, the hard part was supposed to be out of the way as he went into qualifying. But then it all unravelled with a crash that condemned him to 11th on the grid. On top of that, he struggled to launch any kind of recovery with a light fuel load in the sprint. The Sunday podium only served to underline what might have been.
Winner: Maverick Vinales
Maverick Vinales, Red Bull KTM Tech 3
Karim Jaafar - AFP - Getty Images
Vinales had been stronger than usual in Texas two weeks ago, but the general paddock assumption was that this was down to his affinity for the COTA circuit. It was something of a surprise, therefore, to see him qualify on the second row in Qatar. With usual KTM talisman Pedro Acosta struggling to 12th in qualifying, Tech3 rider Maverick thus emerged as the clear leader of the Austrian brigade in the desert.
While he slipped back in the sprint thanks to a bizarre tyre choice (see below), there was no sign of a classic Vinales disappearing act in the grand ...
