Race Week: MotoGP revs back to life this weekend!

First we saw the liveries, then we saw the MotoGP class of 2021 head out for testing. Now, at the floodlit oasis of Losail International Circuit, it’s time to get suited and booted for another season of stunning competition. The racing will get underway for fans on the 28th of March, only a few more sleeps!

Joan Mir will be eagerly waiting to defend his title in 2021, with Marc Marquez still out with an injury.

This season, the headlines are overflowing before a lap has even been ticked off in anger. A new reigning Champion begins the year on the throne, Joan Mir, and the world waits to find out when we will get to see the return of eight-time World Champion Marc Marquez, although we know it won’t be to race in Qatar. Rider and team musical chairs leaves us with a different grid and new colours for many, as well as a few new faces as we welcome four rookies.

Doha hosts the first and second Grands Prix of the season as Losail also opened its doors for all the official winter test days this year. Jack Miller arrives with the biggest target on his back, flanked by a flotilla of Yamahas as the testing timesheets saw the Aussie and his teammate Francesco Bagnaia bookend a top five reigned by Ducati and Yamaha.

Miller proved he was ready for the podium during the 2021 season after topping the time sheets in testing.

Miller will definitely be one to watch as the lights go out, however, as will Bagnaia. Losail has seen the Borgo Panigale factory enjoy some serious success of late, and the stage is set for the Bologna bullets to start the season where they’ll wish to go on: the front. That’s not forgetting the likes of Johann Zarco either as the Frenchman moves to Pramac Racing and enjoys ever more experience with the Italian machine, also proving his mettle in testing.

Three Yamahas ended the test within less than a tenth and a half of Miller at the top: Maverick Viñales, Fabio Quartararo and last year’s Championship runner up Franco Morbidelli. Viñales starts the year settled in, Morbidelli likewise. Quartararo switches to the factory Yamaha squad, but seems to have immediately found his footing.

Fabio Quartararo made to exciting step into the Yamaha Factory Team, replacing Valentino Rossi for 2021.

Just behind them, sixth in testing saw Aprilia come to the fore. Aleix Espargaro put the Noale factory’s nearly all-new bike right up there every time he went out on track, and increasing expectation has so far been backed up by ever-increasing pace. With teammate Lorenzo Savadori coming back from injury and as well as being a rookie, Espargaro is the man in the spotlight for the new bike as racing gets underway in earnest.

Seventh and eighth was where reigning Champion Joan Mir and Suzuki Ecstar teammate Alex Rins ended the Qatar Test, and the feedback was positive. Consistently fast and consistently threatening in 2020, nothing in testing said Suzuki won’t be out the blocks to defend both the riders title and the teams’ Championship.

Pre-season testing didn’t produce spectacular times for the Suzuki team. Last year proved that they struggle with qualifying.

The Hamamatsu factory’s Achilles heel was qualifying last season, so that may be the first thing to keep a keen eye on as Saturday arrives. It seems though that nothing big to report may translate into “yes, we very much require the Jaws music once the lights go out for racing” with test rider Sylvain Guintoli already having been working on their 2022 engine during the Qatar Test.

Sidelined by injury after Jerez last year, it’s been a long, long road of surgery and recovery for the eight-time World Champion, Marc Marquez, but the signs are looking good. Recently on track on a Honda RC213V-S in Catalunya and Portimão and looking ever more ready to race, there was certainly more than enough to make a good few rumours. His return won’t be in Qatar, however, so the foreboding music for his rivals remains on low for now.

Pol has made the switch from KTM to Repsol Honda whilst Marc Marquez heals from his injuries.

On the other side of the Repsol Honda Team garage there’s plenty to talk about too though. Pol Espargaro joins the fold and, after an impressive trajectory over the past couple of seasons, began 2021 with an equally impressively quick adaptation to the Honda. The Spaniard was tenth overall in testing and could be a dark horse for much further forward as the race weekend begins, with each session of track time only giving him more experience of his new bike and team.

LCR Honda Idemitsu’s Takaaki Nakagami will be hoping to move forward too after a slightly more muted test, as both he and new teammate Alex Marquez suffered a few crashes – the latter also injuring his foot but ready to head back out for Round 1. Both fought for podiums last year and Alex Marquez successfully, as a rookie no less, so they’ll want to move back up the field to where they’d left off last season.

Team KTM will be looking for redemption after a great season for one of the newest teams in MotoGP.

The Austrian factory of KTM ripped up the history books and wrote a few replacements in 2020, with Brad Binder winning them their first MotoGP race – and his, as a rookie and the first premier class winner from South Africa – and new teammate Miguel Oliveira then adding two more MotoGP victories for KTM as well as becoming the first Portuguese premier class winner.

Oliveira, now alongside Binder in the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team, was the fastest Austrian machine in testing, but the two were side by side in P16 and P17. They’ll want more once the lights go out as KTM look to continue their roll of incredible success, but we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: testing is testing. Friday practice, qualifying and then finally the first race of the year are often a wiser litmus test.

Everyone is eager to get the racing underway, thankfully you wont be waiting too much longer.

Iker Lecuona from Tech3 KTM Factory Racing will be looking for more this year too as he starts his second season, needing to move up from where he ended testing, and new arrival Danilo Petrucci will be interesting to watch too as he adapts to his new bike.

The stage is set, the floodlights are primed and the grid is ready to start another rollercoaster season of incredible racing with the Barwa Grand Prix of Qatar. Don’t miss it, with lights out for the first MotoGP race of 2021 at 20:00 (GMT +3) on the 28th of March.