Why would you build a MotoGP track in the middle of the desert?
Two decades after Qatar’s first MotoGP round the story of the Losail circuit can finally be told – it all started with a gang of local road riders who wanted to get their knees down
Hayden made his MotoGP debut in Japan 2003 for the Repsol Honda Team and just two years later finished in third position in the championship behind Valentino Rossi and Marco Melandri.
The following year, only his fourth in MotoGP, he won the world championship title in a thrilling final in Valencia, denying Valentino Rossi a fifth consecutive crown. He made the switch to Ducati in 2009 where he remained for five seasons, before racing for independent team entries. In 2016 and ’17 Hayden raced for Honda in the World Superbike Championship, claiming one race victory in Sepang.
Two decades after Qatar’s first MotoGP round the story of the Losail circuit can finally be told – it all started with a gang of local road riders who wanted to get their knees down
Comparisons with Valentino Rossi may be a little premature but stellar MotoGP rookie Pedro Acosta is already entertaining us on and off track, just like the nine-time world champion used to
A winter of a thousand questions, many of which will finally be answered in Qatar this weekend, including which rider will make the most of Michelin’s all-new compounds?
The MotoGP paddock can be a battlefield between PRs and journalists, who have opposing goals. Once again Mat Oxley has a MotoGP PR machine coming after him and this time the fallout is gloriously entertaining