For the second year running, Yamaha have kicked off their season with back-to-back wins. Factory rider Quartararo showcased exactly why he was moved up to take Rossi’s seat for this year as he calmly and confidently battled his way through a huge group of riders to take his fourth win since stepping up to the premier class. It was a great result for him, and for the team as well, adding to teammate Vinales’ success last week. Monster Energy Yamaha now leave Qatar with the lead in the team championship, the constructor’s championship, and two riders tied for second in the rider’s championship.
It was also an impressive win given the circumstances. Ducati took a big step forward between race one and race two, finding solutions to the various tyre issues they were having in the back half of the Qatar GP. This, coupled with more consistent starts for all the riders wanting to challenge for the win, meant that we saw a pack as large as ten riders at the front of the race, meaning any minor mistakes were punished by losing huge amounts of ground.
The bigger step for Ducati came in the form of better race strategy. In round one they lost too much ground in the infield of the track to the Yamahas and Suzukis, which coupled with their lack of grip in the latter stages meant they couldn’t run the pace at the front. This time, Pramac duo Martin and Zarco were able to hit the front early and control the pace themselves, stalling the riders behind them with an impressive defensive display in order to conserve their tyres better. The likes of Rins and Quartararo were forced to keep pushing themselves up the inside of the Ducatis in tricky overtakes mid-lap and then desperately trying to gap their opponents before they reached the start/finish straight.
Speaking of which, while Quartararo was the winner, the real impressive performance came from Martin. This was a rookie in just his second race on a MotoGP bike who was able to take a shock pole position, and who had said himself in an interview that he was expecting to use the race as a learning opportunity by watching other riders ahead of him. Not much of that learning actually occurred, however – Martin lead the race for 18 of the 22 laps, holding off multiple attacks from Rins, Zarco and Quartararo. It was an unbelievable race for the rookie, and likely the first of many, many podiums for the young Spaniard.
He nearly took second place, but that honour went to teammate Zarco, who nursed his tyres just enough to beat the rookie on the final lap. It’s quite the turnaround for Zarco, who heads into round 3 with the championship lead for the first time since he stepped up to MotoGP. Given he nearly had his career end in 2019 after a botched season with KTM, it’s incredible to see him resurrected like this. Not only has he finished on the podium both races so far this season, but they were both commanding performances and deserved results.
This is all well and good for Ducati, but Pramac are a satellite squad. The factory Ducati team faired worse, though they remained in the front pack of riders for the full distance. Sixth for Bagnaia and ninth for Miller is certainly nothing to sneeze at, but being totally outshone by your satellite counterparts has to hurt, especially when one is a rookie. Bagnaia at least holds onto a top four spot in the championship, but it was a truly disappointing week for Miller. With only 14 points after his first two races with the factory team, he will be another rider looking for more consistency in the coming months.
Speaking of Miller, let’s talk about THAT incident for a minute. Miller had a coming together with reigning champion Mir in the mid stages of the race, and it was bad. Both bikes nearly ran off the circuit after colliding at around 180km/h. None of the camera angles that caught the moment were clean enough to know for certain why it happened, but it certainly looked like Miller intentionally clashed with Mir after the Suzuki rider made a tricky pass on the Australian earlier in the lap. If there was malicious intent behind the incident then I would say it is unacceptable and unredeemable as an action from a professional sportsperson.
Here’s the thing – motorcycle racing is a dangerous enough sport as is. Riders head into every race knowing that at the speeds they race, and with the inherent dangers of overtaking and dueling at those speeds, there is always going to be a chance of injury. The last thing that any of them need is to be fearing injury from another rider on track, and that’s exactly what a move like the one Miller pulled can do. It’s a tough situation, but a serious one at that, and I hope race direction takes a serious look at it in the coming weeks.
Other than that moment on the straight, it was another pretty successful week for the Suzukis. Given that they were seriously outgunned on the straights and had to rely almost exclusively on their cornering in the mid-section, a fourth place for Rins and seventh for Mir is quite a solid haul for the reigning team champions. Qatar has historically not been a favourite circuit of theirs, so taking two decent sets of points from the first two races is confirmation to me that Suzuki are serious contenders this year.
It’s an important result for reigning champion Mir – taking precious points after that high speed incident – but it’s perhaps even more important for Rins. Rins had a tough time of it last season, starting off the year with an injury and falling short of his teammate in the championship battle. Leaving Qatar as the highest scoring Suzuki rider is an important step for him as he attempts to reclaim the position of top dog in the garage, and once we hit the European tracks the podiums should start flowing for Alex.
Which brings me to the most important point of all this. The Qatar rounds of this year were always going to be exciting and refreshing given we didn’t race there in 2020, but they aren’t representative of the real strengths of the teams and riders. All the riders on new teams and bikes have had no experience outside of the Doha circuit, and so the relative strengths and weaknesses of the bikes and individuals haven’t really come to the fore yet. It is way, way too early to be calling who is and isn’t a contender for the title, not only because it’s a long championship but also because we don’t really know what people have up their sleeves yet.
It was an exciting way to kick off the season, but it’s time for riders to head over to Europe and begin preparing for the bigger season to come. Which teams and manufacturers are best set up for the long haul? That, unfortunately, is a question that will take some time to answer, but it also means we have a lot of exciting racing ahead. The real 2021 campaign starts now, and I for one couldn’t be more excited.
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