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ROUND 1 / MARCH 8-10, 2024 LUSAIL INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT / LUSAIL, QATAR MOTOGP I FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP P100 Ai Ogura (MSI Boscoscuro) and Garcia advanced, with the latter assuming third on lap 13 to make this a three-way fight. Ultimately, a Baltus slide exiting turn five on the final lap gave Lopez enough to win his first race since October 2022 by five- hundredths of a second. Moto3 So much for change. Pirelli has taken over Dunlop's role as tire supplier, but Moto3 was as fran- tic as ever, delivering an open- ing round classic befitting of previous contests at this venue. David Alonso (Aspar CFMoto) took a thrilling last-corner vic- tory after starting the final lap in eighth, with four-tenths of a second covering the top six. There was little doubt this was going to the end after pre-race favorites Jose Antonio highest degree. However, few expected results to be distorted to this extent. Not only did Alonso Lopez (Speed Up Boscoscuro) win for only the third time, ahead of debut podium finishers Barry Baltus (RW Kalex) and Sergio Garcia (MSI Boscoscuro), pre - season favorites Fermin Al- deguer (Speed Up Boscoscuro) and Tony Arbolino (Marc VDS Kalex), both guilty of a wrong tire choice, limped home in 16th and 20th, 25 seconds and 30 seconds of the victor, respec - tively. The front- and rear-tire choices were open. Those who went for the harder op- tion suffered, namely polesitter Aron Canet (Fantic Kalex), who initially fought back to lead on lap three after a ropey getaway, while early challenger Arbolino sunk without a trace. Instead, it was those on the softer rear rub - ber who thrived, with Lopez and Baltus scrapping with Manuel Gonzalez for the podium places. As Gonzalez dropped away, to have a little extra at the end of the race, and I almost bridged the gap to Martin. Almost, but it's good this way. If, at the Valencia test, they'd told me I would have finished fourth today, I would have signed for it. This has never been one of my favorite circuits, so fourth place is a good result. We will analyze the data now: Bagnaia finished three seconds ahead of us, and he's the reigning champion. It's from him we need to learn to further raise the bar." Behind, Acosta slipped back to ninth, his rear tire destroyed with seven to go. Bastianini, Alex Marquez, Di Giannantonio and Espargaro, complaining of a dodgy rear tire, all made it by. Maverick Vinales (Aprilia Rac - ing) was a muted 10th. Moto2 How about this for a shake-up? With such limited testing and Friday evening's practice-one session being rained off, Pirelli's first Moto2 outing was always going to be a challenge of the performance. "Considering the fact that this, in addition to being our first Grand Prix, is also one of the most demanding tracks on the cal- endar for tires, we can be satisfied with the performance," said Pirelli's Racing Manager, Giorgio Barbier. "Both in the Portimao tests and in practice one on Friday evening, they did not lap much at all due to the inclement weather, and, as a result, there was quite a bit of uncertainty when it came to tire selection for the race, with various alternatives going out on the track. It will take a few GP rounds to set up the bikes so they are optimized, and the riders will also need a bit of time to adapt to our tires." Briefly... 2024 Qatar MotoGP Video Highlights