One night in, err, Doha

Five months on from the final race of the 2008 MotoGP World Championship, the first of 17 races to decide who will be crowned the king of the premier class in 2009 takes place under lights at the Losail International Circuit, near the Qatar capital of Doha on April 12.

The inaugural event under floodlights took place last year, and was won by Australia's Casey Stoner on a Ducati.

The Australian begins the season fresh from a triumph in the BMW M Award competition in testing at Jerez, a 'qualifying' competition in which he rolled over the opposition with an outstanding lap. Attention will be focused on Stoner's endurance, called into question by his not having undertaken any long runouts since undergoing scaphoid surgery in November.

Reigning world champion Valentino Rossi is still trying to find victory after sunset. The Fiat Yamaha rider was victorious by day in the desert in 2005 and 2006, engaging in his first head-to-head battle with future title rival Stoner at the latter event. Last season he finished fifth in Qatar, off the podium for the first of only two occasions.

"Qatar isn't one of our strongest tracks, but we still have a few cards to play and I hope that a little more work will see us improve for the first race. Tests really mean nothing once you get to raving, the situation is totally different and really we have little idea what will happen until we get there, it's very exciting!

"I'm feeling confident, we're in good shape even if we're going to what was our worst track during testing, but I am happy about the performance of my M1 in general; Yamaha have done a great job and so this makes me happy.

"With the new single tyre rule the tactics will become clearer race by race. I think a lot of new factors will come into play and strategy is going to be quite important to determine where you start the race. I think luck will also be a factor in qualifying, more so than previously!

"We will take it race by race and keep focused on the target, which is of course winning the championship once again."

Guaranteed to be at less than 100 percent is 2008's third place finisher Dani Pedrosa, who missed the final test of pre-season through injury and is a doubt for the Qatari round. A crash at the scene of this weekend's race left Repsol Honda's Spanish star requiring surgery on his arm and leg, with his estimated return to fitness extremely close to opening night.

Jorge Lorenzo returns to the scene of his amazing MotoGP debut -where he took pole and finished second- after an injury-free pre-season. He will be racing with Bridgestone rubber on his Fiat Yamaha M1 for the first time in what will be the maiden race for the championship under a single tyre rule.

Four more factory riders will be in action in Qatar, as Ducati Marlboro's Nicky Hayden lines up alongside Repsol Honda replacement Andrea Dovizioso and Rizla Suzuki's unchanged line-up of Loris Capirossi and Australian Chris Vermeulen.

2004 Qatar race winner Sete Gibernau will be participating in his first MotoGP race since the 2006 Portuguese Grand Prix, while premier class bows will be made by Pramac Racing's Niccolo Canepa and Mika Kallio plus Scot Racing's Yuki Takahashi. The 800cc field is completed by Monster Yamaha Tech3 riders Colin Edwards and James Toseland, San Carlo Honda Gresini's Alex de Angelis and Toni Eliás, and Hayate Racing man Marco Melandri.

Practice begins on Friday night, with the first 45-minute practice session for the MotoGP riders taking place at 10.30pm local time.

The Losail International Circuit lies on the outskirts of Doha, the capital city of Qatar. Built in little over a year, the track cost $100m and required round-the-clock dedication from almost 1000 workers in order to get it ready for the inaugural event on October 2, 2004.

The clockwise-running track is 5.4km, surrounded by artificial grass designed to prevent sand from the neighbouring desert from blowing onto the circuit. The main straight is over a kilometre in length, and there is a good mix of medium and high-speed corners.

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