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Motorcycling's premier competitors resumes this weekend as Qatar hosts the opening MotoGP race of the season on Sunday.
The Lusail Worldwide Circuit will host an 11-lap dash race on Saturday and the principle 22-lap race on Sunday, with Francesco Bagnaia favourite to win his third consecutive title within the seventy fifth 12 months of the competitors.
Bagnaia and his Ducati Lenovo crew will as soon as once more be the crew to beat within the 21-round season, which concludes on November 17 in Valencia, Spain.
This 12 months's race will mark Qatar's twenty first MotoGP occasion because it joined the Grand Prix calendar in 2004.
Listed here are three key offseason speaking factors forward of the all-important Spherical 1 on the Lusail Worldwide Circuit:
1. Can Yamaha get again to successful methods in 2024?
With out a win in 2023, Monster Power Yamaha has labored laborious within the offseason to shut the hole with the dominant Ducati equipment.
This season might be a make-or-break 12 months for the well-known Yamaha model, with the crew assembling two of its most proficient riders to supercharge its 2024 marketing campaign: Fabio Quartararo and Yamaha newcomer Alex Rins.
Quartararo, who grew to become France's first premier-class world champion in 2021, endured a brutal 2023 season, ending the marketing campaign with no win. This was the primary time Yamaha didn’t win a Grand Prix since 2003.
Rins' season was derailed by harm – however not earlier than the Spaniard carried out an on-track miracle for his underpowered LCR Honda Crew bike, securing the Japanese producer's solely 2023 victory on the US MotoGP in Texas.
Monster Power Yamaha was the final crew to defeat Ducati for the MotoGP World Championship throughout Quartararo's prestigious 2021 title run.
In 2024 pre-season testing in Qatar and Malaysia, there have been optimistic indicators for Yamaha – however to this point they lack the uncooked, one-lap velocity of Ducati.
Throughout the Qatar Grand Prix, Quartararo and Rins will possible depend on the Yamaha's sharp dealing with and braking benefits across the Lusail Circuit to problem the extra highly effective Ducati bikes. Yamaha is probably the most profitable producer on the Qatar Grand Prix with 10 MotoGP wins.
Monster Power Yamaha final gained the Qatar MotoGP in 2021.
2. Can anybody cease the MotoGP World Champion?
As he did final 12 months, world champion Francesco Bagnaia is getting into a brand new MotoGP season because the clear title favourite on the again of his 2022 and 2023 World Riders' Championships.
Two weeks in the past, Bagnaia's GP24 Ducati was among the many class of the sector on the Qatar pre-season testing, with the Italian breaking the one-lap file at Lusail.
Now 27-year-old Bagnaia is getting into the prime of his profession on an expensive Ducati machine – a daunting proposition for his fellow opponents within the 2024 season.
However he gained't have the Riders' Championship all his personal.
His Lenovo Ducati teammate, Enea Bastianini overcame an injury-filled 2023 season to file the second-fastest time on the Qatar pre-season take a look at and is ready for a breakout season.
2023 MotoGP runner-up Jorge Martin can be using an identical technical specification Ducati to Bagnaia on the satellite tv for pc Pramac Racing Crew. Final season, the Spaniard battled Bagnaia relentlessly till the ultimate race title showdown in one of many closest MotoGP rider championships ever.
If final season was any information, the 2024 MotoGP marketing campaign might become one of the crucial aggressive title fights in current historical past, with plenty of extremely proficient riders getting into the championship combine.
3. Will Marc Marquez's daring crew swap deliver him a seventh World MotoGP title in 2024?
He’s the person everyone seems to be speaking about forward of the beginning of the Qatar MotoGP season.
In a sensational transfer, six-time MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez left huge {dollars} on the desk on the Repsol Honda Manufacturing unit Crew – the one outfit he ever rode for within the premier class – to experience alongside his brother Alex in a Gresini Ducati.
Márquez struggled in 2023 – his Honda crashed repeatedly, failing to file a single race win and ending a career-low 14th within the riders' championship.
The good Spaniard final gained the MotoGP riders' title in 2019 – however since then, it's been all disappointment for Marquez because of plenty of severe accidents and a poor-performing Honda bike, leading to solely six, top-three finishes within the final 4 seasons. Acquired a spot in.
Now 31, and with a transparent realization {that a} Ducati – any Ducati – was the dominant race machine, Marquez was operating out of time to safe a seventh MotoGP title cost with Honda.
Marquez confirmed flashes of brilliance in pre-season testing on the Gresini Ducati – however some critics imagine he’s struggling to grasp the vastly totally different technical set-up of the brand new Italian bike.
Others speculate that the mentally aggressive Márquez was “foxing” in pre-season and argue that the Spanish celebrity will instantly problem for race wins.
Marquez's efficiency in Qatar on March 9-10 might be precisely that, offering early indications of his possibilities of successful a shock World Riders Championship title in 2024.
