MotoGP: Qatar - Business as Usual For Lorenzo

It's that time again, folks!

The new MotoGP season kicked off in Doha, Qatar (boy, how I'd like to go there when my aforementioned mission comes to fruition!) yesterday with much focused on changed line-ups and improved machinery. This 5km+ circuit with its six lefthanders and ten right, has been an enjoyable one for me to watch during my few years of tuning into MotoGP on the BBC and I for one was looking forward to seeing how my favourite Brit, Cal Crutchlow, got on in his bid to continue his impressive end to the 2012 season...



I have to say that, upon finding out the qualifying saw Cal picking up pole until the dying moments where Lorenzo pipped him to it, I thought this was a great indication that he was up for the challenge...

His pre-race comments indicated that nothing had changed on last year's bike, which of course had me wondering how that would affect him with other teams developing. Those concerns turned out to be largely unfounded as, with only a mishap running wide, resulting him dropping down to fifth, he was certainly proving that he still has the form and the fight to be at the sharp end of the grid. He said post-race that he believed there was still plenty to come from himself as a rider, even if a switch to Ducati had fallen through at the last moment).

I think he could have done little anyway to stem the emergence of Marc Marquez, the 20-year old Spaniard who finished second in his debut race, a truly fantastic achievement. Whilst a resilient and resurgent "Doctor" Valentino Rossi elevated himself from 7th to finish just behind reigning world champion Lorenzo.

As I've mentioned just now, seeing Marquez who was drawing a helluva lot of praise from the BBC commentators in Moto2 last year, his professional race conduct saw him bump elbows with his new team-mate, Dani Pedrosa and certainly give the likes of Andrea Dovizioso & the Doc' a run for their money, before losing out to only Rossi in the end as he capped off his debut on the final step on the podium.

At this point I'm going to tip Marquez as the one to watch this season, hopefully gaining top rookie, though going up against the likes of Michael Laverty & Bradley Smith (whom I should have picked with him being a Brit and all that jazz!), it will be an interesting fight to see who has the biggest impact on the MotoGP crowd.

Next time out... the boys on the tarmac head from East to West as they head to the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. This is a circuit that I found definitely captures the essence of what it takes to be a longstanding and successful track from the way Formula One took to its inception last year.

Whether that prediction rings true, only time alone will tell!

Peace out, bro's!


The Lanky Penguin