MotoGP riders reflect on Qatar season opener

MotoGP 2024
Round One – Lusail, Qatar

Francesco Bagnaia – P1

“We used a different strategy today, after the excellent work done with the team during warm up. Everything went perfectly: I tried to brake hard and waiting an extra moment in order to not use the rear too much and ended the race in the best possible condition. I started a bit slower lap-time wise and then started a bit more as the laps went by. When I saw another rider getting closer, I tried to pull away a bit more and everything went according to plan. Even on this occasion, the team has done an incredible job.”

Brad Binder – P2

“Super-happy to be leaving with 2nd place again. I thought I might have had a bit to catch up and take the lead but every time I got a little closer then the gap stretched again! Anyway, we are happy to start the season this way. I think winning again is only a matter of time. My bike was next-level again, even after the improvements we had made for yesterday, so my team did an immense job. Hats off to them.”

Jorge Martin – P3

“Yesterday, if you asked me if I thought I would be on the podium today, I would have said it was going to be really tough. But today, maybe we have the potential to win, so you know I’m not 100 per cent happy.  Maybe I was, let’s say, I was too good to the tyres at the beginning of the race, and then when Pecco overtook me, and then everything changed a lot because I think my front pressure went a bit high, but yeah, I’m happy the pace was fast. Two laps to go I was able to pull away from Marc and almost catch Brad, so yeah I take the positives. I think we are not; I am not riding on my 100 per cent in terms of the package with a new bike, so I guess if we improve, I can be much more competitive.

“I had expected that we were going to be a bit calmer over the first laps, but as soon as Pecco hit the front, he was pushing, not like hell, because we could not because of the tyres, but he was pushing a lot.

“I tried to be faster but was good on the tyres. Then I had the battle with Brad that wasn’t helping at all, so yeah, I think I could have been a bit faster, but you know I’m happy, and hopefully, we can be faster and in a better position. We did have some tyre left, crucially for those last couple of laps, which allowed me to pull away from Marc.”

Marc Marquez – P4

“I had a go at the podium. I wanted to preserve the front tyre in order to have a little extra at the end of the race and 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 favourite circuits so fourth place is a good result. We will analyse 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.”

Enea Bastianini – P5

“We’re half happy. It was a difficult race: I couldn’t get the bike stopped the way I wanted and that prevented me from pushing hard. Then I tried to save the tyres for the final laps, but in hindsight it wasn’t the right choice, as the drop was a lot lower compared to yesterday. It’s a shame because I could have surely done something better, but I must settle with this finishing position. Our expectations were higher, but we’ll try to do better in the next race; once we get to Portimão, we will have a clearer picture on how to make a further step forward.”

Alex Marquez – P6

“Qualifying aside, we put together a strong weekend. I managed to stay with the top riders in the race and play my cards. It was hard to attack, especially due to the high temperatures at the front-end. At this track, this is surely a good result, we bring home a good number of points and fresh confidence ahead of the next round.”

Fabio Di Giannantonio – P7

“I’m happy, despite the yesterday’s crash, a good start to the season. Today we weren’t perfect, I had some problems to manage and I lost the contact with the leaders in the second half of the race. I was able to be consistent but we need to analyse the data and understand what we were missing. The seventh place, in a race where we struggled a bit, is not bad. I can’t wait to get back on track in Portimao, a truly wonderful track.”

Aleix Espargaro – P8

“I can’t help but be pleased with today’s result after what we demonstrated throughout the weekend. Something wasn’t working in terms of grip at the rear from the first lap, so I wasn’t able to battle like yesterday. In any case, I am still leaving Qatar knowing that I have a competitive bike and, despite thinking I missed a good opportunity today, the championship has only just begun.”

Pedro Acosta – P9

“This first weekend was a dream for me, from the start to the end. Being on the grid, getting my first start, doing my first overtakes, keeping the pace with the big boys, doing many laps, getting a good feeling… Everything was unreal. The bike was working really well, I felt really confident and we enjoyed it a lot. Let’s keep working, because we are on the way!”

Maverick Vinales – P10

“Compared with yesterday, the feeling improved significantly. We still need to figure out which points we need to improve on – which are just small details anyway – but we still need to identify the right way forward. It was an interesting weekend that allowed us to collect important information anyway. I spent the race today behind various riders and various bikes, which let me identify our strong points and our weaknesses. One of the points to improve is undoubtedly managing rear tyre wear,  which keeps me from being as fast as I’d like to be at the moment.”

Fabio Quartararo – P11

“It was really tough. During the test, we already saw that we are still far from the top, but for the Race I maybe expected something a bit different. But in the end, the performance level was similar to the test, so we still have work to do. Hopefully, it won’t take long to correct this.”

Johann Zarco – P12

“Today’s 12th position is proof that we’ve got potential. I’ve had fun during the race and being there in the fight means we can do a good job this season. Many thanks to the team for its work throughout the weekend; I know that step by step, we’ll reach our goals”.

Joan Mir – P13

“We made a great race, honestly. I started well and recovered a lot of positions straight away. It’s been a long time since I was able to enjoy riding like that, so that is really positive. Starting at the back isn’t easy, but we made good ground to be with Fabio for most of the race. In the last five laps I felt like I had a little bit more than Quartararo, so I overtook him and made a gap of one second. Then in the last two laps we dropped a lot, and we lost some positions, which isn’t ideal. But still we are pleased with everything we have done and always learning.”

Marco Bezzecchi – P14

“Despite the step forward in the warm up, I struggled today. I immediately started to have the front lock when in braking and I lost the feeling. I had to slow down when entering the corner and within a few laps I destroyed the rear tyre. With 11 laps to go, therefore practically halfway through the race, I put Map C which is the map with the least power. It wasn’t an easy start, unfortunately it’s difficult to straighten out a weekend when you start badly, but we don’t give up.”

Miguel Oliveira – P15

“It looked like a very promising weekend. We had good speed on Saturday and finally we couldn’t make it happen in the race. The long lap really penalized us a lot. I had to do the long lap early in the race when the group is more compact and I just lost time and track position. So, I had to regain a few positions while I was trying to conserve the tyre. Many things were going on at the same time. I tried to push a lot at the end to try to gain some time when everybody else was struggling, but couldn’t make it. A point for the effort, but we are not happy how the weekend finished. I believe we still need a little bit more time to get the best out of the bike. That’s what I want to believe. I think the team is able to do it, we just need some time, need to keep working and put our heads down to get the best out of ourselves.”

Alex Rins – P16

“Honestly, we suffered a lot during this Race. We tried to do our best, and I was coming from way back down the order towards the front. We were gaining, and lap by lap I was feeling better and better. I got into the top 11 behind Joan Mir and Fabio [Quartararo], but with six laps to the end, the right side of the front tyre dropped dramatically, and I started to lose many, many seconds. In the right corners I couldn’t do the right leaning angle. We took some positive things from this Race for the future, and I’m looking forward to the next GP.”

Augusto Fernandez – P17

“We weren’t able to be in the points today, we are still far, but our feeling was slightly better and we have to be happy with it at the moment. The team is working very hard to give me the bike I need, and I am also giving everything to adapt to it as much as I can and need to be faster. Let’s take the positives, because it is the best day on the bike I’ve had since the pre-season, we have a good basis, so let’s continue working in Portugal.”

Takaaki Nakagami – P19

“I’m disappointed with myself because although we’ve had a difficult weekend, I wanted to do better and get a positive result for me and the team. We’ll now get to Portimao with some data to try and improve, and reach our goals”.

Luca Marini – P20

“It’s encouraging to see the other Honda riders, and especially Mir, fighting for good positions. For us, it has been a continuation of our weekend today and we had a small issue which limited us in the race. I was able to understand a lot of things during the race which is very important, especially when I realised Miller was behind – I let him pass to study a little bit what he was doing. I think this will help us to understand more and more, to take some positives. We need time to keep trying things and getting more comfortable.”

Jack Miller – P21

“Well, no doubt this was a disappointing one here in Qatar, and not the ideal way to begin the 2024 season.

“The optimism was high entering the round, and it still is, to be honest, this championship is very close and tight between all of us, although on my side we just didn’t execute as I know that we can.

“Our qualifying times were decent, made it through into Q2 which was nice, although we still had some work to do as a team heading into the Sprint Race to achieve the feeling that we were looking for.

“Got off to a good launch in the Sprint Race, our starts were pretty strong across the weekend and we were able to put together what I thought was a pretty consistent outing with 10th place, though again, we’d like to be higher up the order than that.

‘We got off to another good start in the Feature Race and were there in the mix, and then I saw an opportunity at turn one as the boys in front of me ran it in pretty deep. I tried to hold the line to maybe sneak up the inside of them but the front went away.

“The fall was just part of the story. I picked the bike up as it was pretty straight, but we were missing something. For whatever reason I wasn’t able to run remotely close to the pace that we needed, so it was a little bit of a head scratcher.

“The good news is that we can see what the bike is capable of, we had some competitive sessions across the race weekend and there are definitely positives that we can take, our big focus now is to analyse the data and come back strong in Portugal.

“Unfortunately, these are the cards we were dealt with this weekend, but we won’t give up and will be ready and prepared for the next round.”

Raul Fernandez – DNF

“Honestly, I’m really frustrated. After a really good Warm Up and a really good weekend in general, we were very competitive. On the grid I had an issue with the electronics, I don’t know why exactly. We have to analyse the data. I saw the lights on the dashboard and saw there was something not right. We tried to find a solution in the pitlane, but we didn’t find a possibility to ride with that bike. So, I had to run to the other bike, that had used tyres and with that my race was almost done. I tried to do the race, but the last five laps it was really difficult to manage the tyres, I couldn’t ride and entered the garage.”

Team Managers

Luigi Dall’Igna – Ducati Corse General Manager

“Pecco did a good job and had a great start. He took some risks in the opening lap, and he did well in doing so. The way he managed the race was impeccable and he did everything he had to do in order to keep the rivals at bay, while staying focused and preserving the tyres. His race craft was simply perfect, there’s nothing he could have done better, and the same applies to the team. He’s a great champion and we’re happy that he’ll be with us for the upcoming years. Enea also did a great race: he finished in the top five and I’m sure he will give us a lot of satisfaction because he’s been working very well with his crew.”

Francesco Guidotti – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager

“A great race by Brad. He was outstanding out there. This isn’t one of our best tracks – or hasn’t been – so to be 2nd twice gives us a lot of confidence for the future. Also, the change we made to the bike after the Sprint made him happy. Crashing out meant that Jack could not take anything from the race but I am sure that he will be back near the front really soon. Portugal is another round for us and another challenge but with Brad in this kind of form and Jack with potential we can be optimistic.”

Nicolas Goyon – GASGAS Team Manager

“It has been an emotional opening round for the Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 team. When Pedro Acosta qualified directly to Q2 on Saturday before finishing in P8 at the Tissot Sprint, it was already a successful weekend for us, but today’s race was MotoGP at its climax! Pedro rode an unbelievable race for his first one in MotoGP, he managed to go up to the fourth place before dropping a little bit, but it is unbelievable for a rookie. He fought with big names of MotoGP, and it is a huge achievement for which we can only say congratulations to him. He was quite pleased with his bike today, so we can only highlight the job made by Pierer Mobility and the team this weekend and over the winter, because we have a bike to fight for the front. Finally, thanks to Pedro for his work, he has a bright future ahead of him, and we are just at the beginning. On the other side of the garage, we saw some small steps being made by Augusto Fernandez. He felt a bit better today, but we are still too far, and we still want more. The only way at the moment is to take it step by step to try being at the level we are targeting. Congratulations to the whole team for this opening round, and let’s move on to the next round in Portugal.”

Pablo Nieto – VR46 Team Manager

“First race of the year a bit complicated with Fabio in seventh place and Marco still looking for the right feeling at the wheel. Fabio was unlucky yesterday while today he managed to keep the pace of the group close to the podium. Maybe we could have collected something more but it was essential to ended the race. Marco is struggling a bit, he needs time. He has to continue to work, we are supporting him in the best possible way. I’m sure he will be able to become competitive again soon.”

Massimo Meregalli – Monster Yamaha Team Director

“We had hoped to be in a more competitive position when we arrived here, but yesterday’s Sprint already showed that we have more work to do. While we were 6s faster in yesterday’s Sprint than we were last November, it’s not enough yet. Yamaha has been taking the riders’ feedback on board and will be working on updates. But realistically this was not something that could be solved within 24 hours. So, for today’s Race we made some set-up changes and discussed with the riders how to best manage the tyres. You could see that Fabio managed the tyres in such a way that he still had something left at the end to push. Álex was riding well in his first Race with us. He tried to manage the tyres as much as possible as well but, unfortunately, he suffered a front tyre drop in the final six laps, which prohibited him from pushing. This cost him dearly. It’s a shame that we didn’t have a more positive season opener. But we now know where we stand, and we will use this GP as a benchmark as we continue to develop our package.”

Wilzo Zeelenberg – Trackhouse Team Manager

“The first drama of 2024 is written. Raul had an error code on his dash just before he started. After two or three seconds the bike came back, but at that point you need to leave the grid as soon as possible. Looking at the error we had to switch to the second bike because it was too tricky to start with the error code. With the second bike, he needed to start from the back of the grid and unfortunately, after a few laps with a good pace the rear tyre dropped massively and also the front tyre was on the limit. He was pushing and forcing and trying to come back from the last position, but he had to retire. Miguel needed to do his penalty from Qatar 2023 and he succeeded that in lap number five, dropping from 15th to 19th. Of course, you lose only a couple of seconds, but also four positions, which is a lot on this grid at the moment. He kept on fighting, lap times were really good at the end because he was able to save the tyre in a way to be able to do that in the end and not all the guys managed to do the same. So, he grabbed a point, because he kept on fighting until the end. Of course, 15th is not where we want to be, but looking from where we were coming with the long lap penalty and Raul’s issues, I think we need to be pleased with at least a point. Let’s go to Portimao now with the speed we have. We have shown a couple of times this weekend, we can do much better. But everything needs to be fitted together and that clearly didn’t happen this weekend.”

Davide Brivio – Trackhouse Team Principal

“It has been emotional for all the Trackhouse family, for the first race of our team. Even if, unfortunately, it did not go as we wanted, we had an electronic warning at the grid and Raul had to start at the back of the grid, on his second bike, which is very unfortunate as I think he had the pace to fight for a result. On the other side of the garage, Miguel had to pay his penalty, which is something strange as it’s from last year, but it is what it is and without that he could probably have been easily in the top ten. Let’s say; we go away from Qatar knowing that we have the potential to do much better than what we have done and this we have to try to use starting in Portimao, Portugal, which will be a very important race for Miguel. Before then, we will analyze everything that happened here and try to improve, to do better.”

MotoGP Lusail Race Results

MotoGP Lusail Top Speeds Across Weekend

MotoGP Championship Standings

2024 FIM MotoGP World Championship calendar (Updated)

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