MotoGP preview: Qatar

The flood-lit Commercial Bank Grand Prix of Qatar will signal the start of the 2014 World Road Racing Championship from March 20-23, as 21-year-old Marc Marquez looks to begin the defence of the MotoGP title he historically won at the first time of asking last year.

And in the smallest capacity class, Moto3, it’s a spicy one for Australian road racing followers with Townsville flyer Jack Miller (KTM) coming off a stellar pre-season where he was consistently among the fastest riders.  The last Australian to win a Moto3 (formerly 125cc) race was Casey Stoner in 2004.

This weekend’s round will be the 11th at the desert-based Losail International Circuit, which has been on the calendar since 2004. The track first welcomed the season-opener in 2007 and has hosted an evening race since 2008.

The first Qatar winner was Sete Gibernau, although in more recent times one looks to Jorge Lorenzo who has claimed victory at the last two events. Riding for Movistar Yamaha MotoGP, Lorenzo will now be threatening for a hat-trick of Losail victories. However, team-mate Valentino Rossi will also be looking to challenge, having battled hard with Marc Marquez last year.

Marquez heads into the 2014 campaign at less than 100 per cent fitness, having suffered a broken leg in a training accident exactly six weeks before the day of opening free practice. The Repsol Honda rider may well be thinking of the long game, whereas team-mate Dani Pedrosa will certainly be hoping for a first race win in Qatar.

The factory Ducati outfit generated plenty of headlines over the winter break with its much-publicised switch to ‘Open’ bikes – but first here’s the background.

From 2014, all bikes in the field are obliged to run the spec ECU hardware as supplied by Dorna Sports and Magneti Marelli. Furthermore, teams must select either ‘Factory Option’ or ‘Open’ as their bike specification.

Factory Option machines drop from 21 litres of fuel in 2013 to 20 this year, whereas those running Open bikes are obliged to use the spec ECU software as well as the hardware. In-turn, Open runners will enjoy privileges such as a maximum of 24 litres of fuel across a race distance, 12 engines per season (as opposed to five for Factories) and will not be subject to engine freeze regulations – allowing work on the machines during the season. Open runners can also enjoy unlimited testing.

In 2014 Ducati has recruited Cal Crutchlow to sit ride alongside Andrea Dovizioso, while Monster Yamaha Tech3 has placed reigning Moto2 world champion Pol Espargaro next to Bradley Smith.

Spaniard Pol is one of four rookies in the 2014 premier class, but sustained a broken collarbone during the final minutes of the last pre-season test. The other three debutants come in the form of Frenchman Mike di Meglio (Avintia Racing), Moto2 runner-up Scott Redding (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) and Australian Broc Parkes (Paul Bird Motorsport, team-mate to Michael Laverty).

Parkes will ride an Aprilia-powered ART machine.

"I'm delighted to be back with the team I raced for in World Superbikes a few years ago and we have a really good relationship which is important," Parkes said. "It's going to be tough for sure but I intend to make the most of this opportunity given to be by PBM. To continue the run of Australians racing in MotoGP is fantastic too and I'm really looking forward to going racing this weekend in Qatar."

It was Aleix Espargaro – elder brother of Pol - who was the revelation of the off-season thanks to his lap times with NGM Forward Racing. Making best use of a Yamaha lease deal, Aleix has been tipped by paddock insiders for some major surprises, as he and Pol look to become the first siblings to share a premier class podium since Nobuatsu and Takuma Aoki at Imola in 1997.

Another high-profile team switch is that of Nicky Hayden, who is now riding for Drive M7 Aspar alongside Hiroshi Aoyama. Along with the aforementioned Redding and Cardion AB Motoracing’s Karel Abraham, these four riders are at the helm of the brand-new Honda RCV1000R customer bike.

Elsewhere, Stefan Bradl and Alvaro Bautista continue with their respective LCR Honda MotoGP and GO&FUN Honda Gresini satellite outfits, whereas the Pramac Racing line-up sees Yonny Hernandez now racing full-time alongside Andrea Iannone. Colin Edwards stays put with Forward, while Danilo Petrucci becomes the sole rider of IodaRacing Project.

The 2014 MotoGP grid contains 11 world championship winners, who between them have won a total of 26 crowns across the three classes – a new record for the premier class entry list.

On top of this, no less than 16 of the current MotoGP riders have been race winners at some point in their career; with 333 victories between them, this will also become new record should all successfully gather on the start line for the season-opening race on Sunday.

In Moto2, Anthony West (Speed Up) will again be the sole Australian as the grid begins its search for a new world champion, and in Moto3 Arthur Sissis (Mahindra) joins Miller.

Opening MotoGP practice in Qatar begins at 7:55pm local time (GMT +3) on March 20. Live coverage and live timing of all MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 sessions can be tracked through www.motogp.com.

KEY QATAR NUMBERS

249 – Honda need just one more MotoGP victory to become the first manufacturer to reach the milestone of 250 wins in the premier class of Grand Prix racing

112 – Jorge Lorenzo’s victory at the final race of 2013 marked his 112th podium appearance across all Grand Prix classes. This is the same number of podium finishes that Mike Hailwood achieved during his Grand Prix career. Only five riders have finished on the podium more often in Grand Prix racing: Valentino Rossi (183 podium finishes), Giacomo Agostini (159), Angel Nieto (139), Dani Pedrosa (125) and Phil Read (121)

52 – Jorge Lorenzo’s victory at Valencia was the 52nd time he had stood on the top step of the podium in Grand Prix racing: the same number of wins that Phil Read achieved during his 15-year Grand Prix career. Only five riders have stood on the top step of a GP podium more often than Lorenzo: Giacomo Agostini (122 GP wins), Valentino Rossi (106), Angel Nieto (90), Mike Hailwood (76) and Mick Doohan (54)

35 – At the age of 35 years and 35 days on race day in Qatar, Valentino Rossi will become the oldest former premier class World Champion to take part in a premier class race since Giacomo Agostini in 1977

33 - Dominique Aegerter’s tenth place finish at the final Moto2 race of 2013 signalled the 33rd successive race at which he has finished in a point-scoring position. The last race at which he failed to score points was when he finished 18th at the opening race of 2012 in Qatar. Should he achieve a top 15 finish in Qatar this year, Aegerter will equal the longest sequence of successive point-scoring finishes in the intermediate class of Grand Prix racing; this was first achieved by Luca Cadalora, with 34 successive point-scoring finishes in the 250 class in a period across the 1990-92 seasons

28 - Andrea Dovizioso celebrates his 28th birthday on race day in Qatar

20 – Spanish riders have won the last 20 races across all three classes; a record for the longest sequence of successive GP wins by one nation. The last non-Spanish GP winner was Scott Redding, in the Moto2 class at Silverstone last year

11 – This will be the 11th occasion that a Grand Prix event has been held at the Losail International Circuit and the seventh under floodlights. Yamaha has been the most successful manufacturer in MotoGP at this circuit (five wins); Ducati has had three victories and Honda two

8 – This will be the eighth successive year that the Losail International Circuit has hosted the opening Grand Prix event of the year; it first did so in 2007

5 – The two riders with most GP victories at Losail, with five wins apiece, are Casey Stoner (4 x MotoGP, 1 x 250) and Jorge Lorenzo (2 x MotoGP, 2 x 250 and 1 x 125)

3 – Jorge Lorenzo won the last three MotoGP races of 2013 and a win for him in Qatar would mark the first time in his GP career that he has achieved four successive victories.

2 – After four seasons of the Moto2 class, there are now just two riders who have competed in all 68 races that have taken place: Dominique Aegerter and Simone Corsi.