In order to mitigate the risk of the MotoGP race being affected by rain and/or the dew at the Qatar track, there has been a change in schedule at the season's opening race. Now onward, only the MotoGP race will be run at night.
That means that the two support races - Moto3 and Moto2 - will be run during daylight, with Moto2 running during sunset. That will be a little tough on the riders, as there are five turns at the circuit whose entry faces west. Since the race is scheduled to begin at 5:20pm local time, the riders will be staring into the sun at those turns. Running these races during the day also means that can be run on time even if it rains.
Another big change is the entire schedule for MotoGP - practice, qualifying and the race all happen at a single go after the Moto2, which means that teams and riders won't have to account for the different levels of grip before and after the Moto2 race due to the rubber the Moto2 bikes lay down on the track. The moving up of the MotoGP race also means that it avoids the condensation that might occur with a delay, as it did during the 2017 Qatar race. This makes it very treacherous for the riders, as they cannot see the dew in time to react to it. The new schedule is a provisional one, but it is highly unlikely that anyone will come up with a significantly better solution to the unique challenges that the Qatar venue raises.
Dorna, the company behind MotoGP, gets paid handsomely to make sure that the first race of the season is the Qatar GP, which is why there is no talk about slotting it elsewhere in the season's schedule. The first MotoGP race of the 2018 season will be held on the 18th of March.
Photo: Ducati
