MOTOGP
FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 1 / MARCH 8-10, 2019
LOSAIL INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT / DOHA, QATAR
P70
and was second behind Dovizioso on
the first lap. On the second lap, how-
ever, he suddenly sat up and slowed,
reached behind him, removed the
seat pad, and threw it away, luckily
without hitting any follow-
ing riders.
It had come loose
through the fast right-
handers. He dropped to
11th, and moved back into
the top 10 soon after-
wards. But his seating
position and weight distri-
bution were wrong, and
as a result he chewed up
his front tire and had to
retire.
Dovi takes the early
lead in the title with 25
points over Marquez (20),
Crutchlow has 16, Rins
has 13 and Rossi is at 11.
Another three seconds away, Pol
Espargaro's lone Red Bull KTM was
a couple of seconds clear of a big
pack. This was led at the end by
Jorge Lorenzo (Repsol Honda), who
suffered a dire first race on
the factory bike. Still injured,
he had fallen twice on Satur-
day, started from 15th, and
bided his time to get back
ahead of Andrea Iannone
(Aprilia), Johann Zarco (Red
Bull KTM) and Fabio Quar-
tararo (Petronas Yamaha).
Quartararo had stalled
on the grid and had to start
from pit lane. He set the
fastest lap of the race as he
caught up, but just missed
out on the points.
Jack Miller had an even
stranger race. Qualifying
fourth, he got a blazing start
The old Doctor
clawed his way to
the lead pack in
fine style. Valentino
Rossi took an
excellent fifth.
Hafizh Syahrin was a dejected
20th, and last, on his KTM
debut, finishing some 20
seconds off 19th-place Rabat.
He took to Instagram to
apologize to his team and fans.
