| Article 248-1 - MotoGP |
MotoGP
The waiting is over! The first event in the 2011 MotoGP World Championship will run this weekend, at the spectacular Losail Circuit, with the COMMERCIALBANK GRAND PRIX OF QATAR.
The final pre-season MotoGP tests, for this year, took place at Losail last Sunday and Monday evenings, under floodlights, between 6 and 11pm. Repsol Honda riders Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa took first and second positions during both sessions; reigning World Champion, Jorge Lorenzo managed fifth and seventh places for Yamaha Factory Racing; whilst Ducati Marlboro contenders, Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi, achieved a double ninth (Hayden) and an eighth, then thirteenth, for Rossi. Both Ducati riders crashed during testing, as did several others, in windy and difficult conditions.
Ben Spies, Yamaha Factory Racing, tested into fourth and third places, with the UK's Cal Crutchlow sixteenth and fifteenth.
Official Practice, in advance of the Sunday night-time race, starts on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the third round of the 2011 MotoGP World Championship, scheduled for 24th April, with the Grand Prix of Japan, may be a further casualty of the earthquake disaster. But no decision has yet been made, as the nation grapples with the terrible events of the last few days.
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