The MotoGP season is underway in earnest now, as the premier class took to the desert’s night sky in Qatar for the inaugural race of the 2011 MotoGP Championship season. With the Repsol Hondas seemingly operating in a parallel universe, all eyes were on the rest of the field to see if they could touch the dynamic duo of Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa. With the pair joined by Jorge Lorenzo on the grid, the Spaniard was eight tenths of second slower in qualifying than the second-fastest Honda of Pedrosa. Some worried that the MotoGP fans of Qatar would be in for a follow-the-leader race, but those concerns were put to rest as multiple bouts between riders erupted on the night track. Spoilers on the Qatar GP after the jump.
James Toseland will miss at least the next two World Superbike rounds after crashing during private at Motorland Aragon. The…
Just in case you’ve been hiding under a rock this week, the 2011 MotoGP Championship is about to kick off…
Repsol Honda factory rider Andrea Dovizioso obliged us with his notes on the Losail International Circuit as the MotoGP Championship got underway with its now customary night race in Doha, Qatar. Dovi and the rest of the Repsol crew have been extremely fast at Qatar, and as one of our favorite riders to talk to in the MotoGP paddock, we had to have Andrea kick off this new feature for us. Over the course of the 2011 MotoGP Championship, Asphalt & Rubber will be getting track notes from each MotoGP racer on the 18 venues the series visits throughout the season.
If you’ve seen some of the photos from the Losail International Circuit, you’ll see that Nicky Hayden has been going out in some of the sessions with a piece of plastic affixed to his helmet. As the MotoGP paddock gets ready for the Qatar GP, the wind has been a factor here in Doha, fueled by the Arabian Gulf which is only two miles away from us and the desert the surrounds the area. Originally we thought that Arai was perhaps experimenting with some sort of new aerodynamic package here in Qatar, but Carlos Checa ran a similar setup during the World Superbike races at Phillip Island with X-lite helmet. Talking to Arai Helmets about the odd clear piece of plastic, they disclosed that it’s something that Ducati has been experimenting with on its race package.