MOTOGP 2013 - RD1 - QATAR - JUST BIKES

MotoGP 2013 - Rd1 - Qatar

Australia was still represented at Qatar, by Bryan Staring, who was on the Gresini Go&Fun CRT bike. Along with Michael Laverty, Staring was making his MotoGP debut at Qatar, and while no threat to the factory bikes, was still hoping for a good result amongst the CRT machines.

Qualifying saw Yamaha Factory racing's Jorge Lorenzo claim pole, sharing the front row of the grid with Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) and last year's championship runner-up Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda). Andrea Dovizioso qualified the factory Ducati in fourth place, while Marquez qualified sixth of debut, just ahead of Valentino Rossi. Staring qualified 23rd on the Honda-engined FTR Gresini bike.

As the lights went out for the 22-lap race, a scorching start by Dani Pedrosa saw him shoot up into second place by Turn 1, but Lorenzo's getaway was just as clean, and he soon had an early gap on the field. Pedrosa's teammate Marquez endured a slow getaway, dropping to eighth, while Rossi's start was just as bad.
On lap two, Cardion AB Motoracing's Karel Abraham crashed out, followed soon after on the same lap by Staring in what he later said was a "stupid crash."

With Lorenzo building a lead, Marquez was making up positions, passing Dovizioso, then Crutchlow. At this point, Lorenzo was already leading Pedrosa by 1.6 seconds, and would eventually stretch his advantage by half a second per lap as those behind him became engaged in a dramatic battle.

By the halfway point on lap 11, Marquez was very much involved in a duel with teammate Pedrosa, as Crutchlow stalked the pair. Rossi, who had been a bit too eager at the start and ran wide, was catching up to the battling trio. The multiple MotoGP champ passed Dovizioso and LCR Honda MotoGP's Stefan Bradl, who crashed soon after.

Márquez overtook Pedrosa on lap 17, then proceeded to put a gap on his team mate. Crutchlow and Rossi were having their own battle close behind, before the Italian stormed past the Englishman. Crutchlow misjudged his braking point at the end of the start-finish straight and ran off-track at Turn 1, effectively ended his chance of a podium.

A revitalised Rossi continued his charge, with manoeuvres on Pedrosa and Marquez on Laps 19 and 20 respectively. The later fought back to re-pass the veteran, but Rossi would come out on top by just two tenths of a second, with Márquez becoming the first MotoGP rookie to seal a podium result in his first race since Lorenzo finished second at Losail five years ago.

Almost forgotten at the head of the field, Lorenzo's eventually winning margin was 5.9 seconds. Pedrosa and Crutchlow completed the top five from Gresini's Álvaro Bautista, Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden on the pair of Ducati Team machines, Pramac Racing newcomer Andrea Iannone and his teammate Ben Spies rounding out the top ten.

The Power Electronics Aspar team won CRT honours, with reigning class Champion Aleix Espargaro finishing 11th overall and leading home teammate Randy de Puniet by 6.6 seconds. Avintia Blusens' Hector Barbera rose from 22nd on the grid to 13th, in front of PBM's Yonny Hernandez, Avintia's Hiroshi Aoyama, Forward Racing's Claudio Corti, PBM's Michael Laverty and Ioda's Lukas Pesek who on Saturday had qualified 15th for his debut.

Joining Staring and Abraham on the retirement list were Tech 3's Bradley Smith, Came IodaRacing Project's Danilo Petrucci and NGM Mobile Forward Racing's Colin Edwards.

The next round of the 2013 MotoGP World Championship will be at the new Circuit of the Americas track in Texas, USA, on April 20.