CRUTCHLOW'S HIRING
PAYING OFF
Maverick Vinales pointed to Cal
Crutchlow's hiring as Yamaha's of-
ficial test rider as a key to this race
success. "We ride very similar, hon-
estly. I was quite surprised because
in the last day of testing I tried his
bike and it was fantastic for me. So
it's the kind of thing that helped me
a lot to just stay concentrated on
racing and not stay concentrated
on testing things. This is a totally
different mentality from last year.
Sometimes we needed to test many
things. I wanted everything to work,
but normally nothing works when
you try something during the race
weekend. This looks like it gives
us a lot of calm because we know
when Cal will say this is good, it's
really good."
DUCATI'S EDGE
BLUNTED
It all pointed to a Ducati whitewash.
The red bikes were poised to back
up their preseason speed when
new factory runner Francesco Bag-
naia shattered the outright circuit re-
cord to seal a maiden MotoGP pole.
Crucially, they showed top speed
from another planet. Johann Zarco
was clocked at a pupil-dilating
225.18 mph just before qualifying,
on the Losail International Circuit's
front straight which stretches to 0.6
miles. Yet their straight-line advan-
tage wasn't as pronounced on race
day. On average Zarco's machine
Briefly...
leading group with teammate
Bagnaia and Zarco, but a de-
stroyed rear tire meant his prog-
ress was halted early and he
dropped back through the field
like a stone, finished an eventual
seven seconds off Vinales.
Rounding out the top 10 was
rookie sensation, 2020 Moto2
World Champion Enea Bas-
tianini. The Italian was scintillat-
ing on his debut, finishing ahead
of seasoned MotoGP veterans
Stefan Bradl, Valentino Rossi
and Miguel Oliveira.
No doubt the biggest news of
the race was the dismal showing
of Franco Morbidelli (Petronas
Yamaha). The Italian qualified in
seventh but limped home to 18th
and no points following issues
MOTOGP
FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 1 / MARCH 26-28, 2021
LOSAIL INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT / DOHA, QATAR
P56
Bagnaia was brilliant for the first
half of the race. The Italian was
looking clean and kept his tire in
decent enough condition to make
a podium challenge at the end.
