MotoGP Qatar: Race preview

MotoGP is back in business as the Qatar GP kicks off the 2022 season with spectacle guaranteed under the Lusail lights.

2021 saw every manufacturer take home a podium and heralded some of the closest top-15 finishes of all time in premier class racing. More records were broken, new winners emerged, and a few precedents were set. France got its first premier class World Champion. We bid a racing farewell to legends and winners. But that’s already a chapter in the history books, and now we’re about to open the cover on 2022 and welcome the new. As we do, the title page bears a simple message: welcome back to the greatest show on Earth. Please keep your hands and feet inside the rollercoaster at all times.

It’s Lusail International Circuit that hosts the now iconic floodlit opening round, and in 2022 there are 24 riders waiting for the lights to go out – 14 of whom are World Champions, which is a new record. Five are premier class rookies, 12 are premier class race winners. One has eight World Championships. One wears the crown. Another signed off 2021 with the momentum and yet more have reset, recharged and come back to the fight with a little more in the tank for 2022…

Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) must lead the headlines as both the reigning Champion and a winner at the track in 2021. Yamaha is the most successful manufacturer at Lusail and they took both victories at the track last year, so that’s also a good omen for Quartararo, teammate Franky Morbidelli (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP), two-time Qatar winner Andrea Dovizioso (WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP) and his new teammate, rookie Darryn Binder. But pre-season testing saw a few glances of discontent for the Iwata marque in their ongoing battle to