The reason for this hour less lies in the particular characteristics of the Qatar Grand Prix. As the race at the Losail International Circuit takes place at night, testing provides almost no useful information during the hottest hours of the day. Only when the sun sets, at 17:30 p.m., can serious tests be carried out. Later in the evening, humidity appears on the asphalt. Therefore, the test now ends at 20 p.m. in Qatar, before the track becomes too slippery. This leaves participants with a good two hours in the conditions of the race which will take place on Sunday March 8 at 18 p.m. local time (16 p.m. CET).
As with the tests at Sepang, there will be no no live broadcast. The high cost of a full television production simply does not pay off during winter testing for promoter Dorna Sports. However, images from the track will be delivered, as well as a daily summary of interviews and analysis distilled every evening from 17:30 p.m. to 19:00 p.m. Central European Time, on the official website MotoGP.com, and a LIVE TIMING throughout the sessions. Your favorite site will also be on the alert continuously…
Challenges:
For these Qatar tests, the MotoGP starters should be in full force, with the exception of Andrea Iannone still entangled in his doping problems. The latter will therefore be replaced by Bradley Smith at Aprilia, to finish developing an RS-GP which appeared very promising at Sepang. This will also be officially presented this Friday afternoon from Losail…
Quite unusual fact, there will be no other test drivers on the Qatari track, the different manufacturers having each decided to leave Michele Pirro, Jorge Lorenzo, Kohta Nozane, Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Stefan Bradl, Sylvain Guintoli, Takuya Tsuda, Dani Pedrosa and other Mika Kallio at home. Yet, at Ducati we appeared in relative difficulty in Malaysia, the four official machines having declined since 2019...
If we can think that the die is almost cast regarding the choice of engine which will be frozen throughout the season, this is not yet the case for the aerodynamic configuration which will have to be approved on the Thursday preceding the Grand Prix, and we could continue to see different models of fins flourishing on the fairings.
We will also potentially observe the different “holeshot devices”, en test chez Yamaha à Sepang mais peut-être sur les motos officielles à Losail, et promis pour très bientôt chez Suzuki…
Two weeks before the Grand Prix, there will also be time for injured drivers, starting with Marc Márquez et Takaaki Nakagami, to learn about their physical form in racing conditions.
Finally, on the Frenchies side, we will of course carefully follow the faultless course of fabio quartararo as well as that, more tortuous but promising, of John Zarco.
weather:
Stable weather is expected in the Doha desert. It will be recalled that MotoGP in Qatar has already been hit several times by heavy rain, whether during testing or the race weekend. But the skies promise to be kind for the final test of winter 2020, and meteorologists expect a dry weather during the three days. Expected temperatures are very pleasant, with maximum values expected to be around 26 degrees at most while it is not expected to get colder than 17 degrees at night.
See you tomorrow at 11 a.m.!
