MOTOGP
2016 MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 1 / MARCH 20, 2016
LOSAIL INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT / DOHA, QATAR
P48
Miguel Oliveira (Leopard Kalex)
11th, and the luckless Zarco
12th; with Cortese dropping to
15th behind Wilairot (Idemitsu
Kalex) and Nakagami.
MOTO3
AS CLOSE AS YOU LIKE
The first race of the year started
as dusk fell over the desert,
and was a thriller worthy of the
class.
Romano Fenati was on
pole, the Sky VR46 KTM rider
snatching it at the last minute
from Livio Loi's RW Honda; and
it was Loi who took the lead on
the first lap from Fenati and Red
Bull KTM rider Brad Binder.
Loi was knocked down to
Hafizh Syahrin (Petronas
Kalex) held on to fourth after a
long battle with Moto3 champi-
on Danny Kent (Leopard Kalex);
then Dominique Aegerter (CarX-
pert Kalex) swiped fifth from
the English rider by less than a
tenth.
Morbidelli was dropped to
seventh, a lucky tenth ahead of
Rins, who had served a ride-
through. Fellow-victim Lowes
was a couple of seconds down
in a philosophical ninth, saying:
"Things happen in racing, and
at least I got some points."
Valentino Rossi's half-brother
Luca Marini (Forward Kalex)
was tenth in his first GP as
a full-time rider; class rookie
getting better all the time," he said.
The difficulty was moving his foot to
different positions, for braking and
cornering, but "we fitted a lighter
return spring for the brake, and that
helps."
Earth Hour 2016—during which
all non-essential lights were to be
turned off—came and went during
MotoGP Q1 and Q2 on Saturday eve-
ning, with no dimming of the massive
illumination of the Losail circuit. Un-
derstandably the circuit lights, which
are regularly turned on long before
sunset, were considered "essential,"
but it would have been a nice ges-
ture if the pits had been candle-lit.
Briefly...
Niccolo Antonelli (23) was never in the
lead until it mattered: right on the line
to take the win from Binder (41).
