Qatar MotoGP
Join Live Racing to watch Qatar MotoGP live from Losail Circuit, Qatar. Catch all the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar MotoGP, Moto2, and Moto3 action live — free practice, qualifying, warm-up, and race — on 6–8 April 2012 or anytime after via replay. Access Qatar motorcycle Grand Prix Road Racing World Championship streams and feeds aggregated from sources worldwide. Never miss a race again!
- Next Race Date — 8th April 2012
- Location — Losail Circuit, Qatar
- Circuit Length — 5.380 km (3.343 mi)
Qatar MotoGP Overview
The Qatar MotoGP offers a glimpse into the future of the sport that has followed in the footsteps of Formula 1 and found the race calendar with a distinctly Eastern feel. The Doha circuit offers its own individual challengers under the night sky for the riders, with the desert heat proving to be as equally challenging as anything the track has to throw up. The traditional season curtain raiser since its inception in 2004, this hard riding track was designed to test teams to the limit in more ways than one.
© http://www.flickr.com/photos/daly3d/5.4 km long with a series of huge sweeping right handers, the Losail International Circuit twists and turns its way all the way through to the kilometre long straight. An excellent balance of high and medium speed corners counteract a series of tight turns in the second sector, meaning anyone with aspirations of taking maximum points away from Doha will be forced to work for them.
History of Motorcycle Grand Prix in Qatar
The circuit has only been on the calendar for seven years, but has already established itself as one of the most spectacular of the year. Having opened in 2004, outdoor lighting was installed in 2008, allowing night races to take place for the first time in the sports history. Despite being one of the newest events, Casey Stoner has already established his dominance at the circuit, winning four of the eight races it has hosted so far, while eight-time World Champion Valentino Rossi has also enjoyed considerable success there.
Qatar Moto GP Key Moments
- 2011
- Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner lays a marker down for the rest of the grid as he blasts his way to a convincing victory in Doha, his fourth win at the circuit. Can anyone catch him this season?
- 2009
- The Qatar Moto GP becomes the first motorcycle race to ever be postponed because of adverse weather conditions.
- 2004
- The first ever race proved to be the most controversial. With Valentino Rossi sent to the back of the grid after an appeal from rival Sete Gibernau’s Team Grisini amongst others that Rossi’s starting grid position had been cleaned to aid traction off the line, Gibernau took the chequered flag. Rossi vowed never to let Gibernau win a race again, and to date he is yet to stand atop of the podium, leading some to believe Gibernau was jinxed by the “Qatar curse”.