Grand Prix motorcycle racing starts again this weekend with the Qatar Grand Prix playing host to the world’s most exotic two wheeled racing machines under the now traditional lights of the opening night race of the season from Losail. MotoGP is split into three classes with the MotoGP, Moto2 and 125cc divisions. Each has its own world title and the battle for race wins is hard as nail in each category.
The MotoGP class tends to dominate the hearts and minds of race fans over the world, just as much as four riders have dominated the premier class for the last three years. Dubbed the aliens by their fellow competitors; Valentino Rossi, Casey Stone, Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa have won 50 of the last 53 races and only wet weather has allowed the opposition to have any success. This year though sees the chance for a change at the head of the field with Pedrosa struggling in pre season with a poor Honda possibly leaving a gap for another rider to fill.
The rider with the best chance to fill that void could well be American rookie Ben Spies. The reigning World Superbike champion is riding a Yamaha for the Tech 3 team and comes into the paddock with a fearsome reputation bolstered considerably by his debut on the Yamaha M1 at Valencia last season when he finished seventh after never riding on the bike prior to the race weekend. The Texan will seek to achieve success in Grand Prix comparable to his Superbike career but the road has been littered with riders who have failed in their attempts to achieve this.
Valentino Rossi will still be the man to beat and the nine times world champion shows no signs of letting his grip on the title wane as he sets out to compete in his 15th world championship season. The Italian has long been held as the greatest of his generation and over the last five years has been called the greatest of all time but his endurance to continue racing at the top for so long without become weary of the grind has to be lauded as much as his riding. Each year there is an expectation within the paddock that Rossi will finally be unseated by a rival and supplanted as the best in the class but each time Rossi comes back stronger than ever.
A prime example of this was in 2008 when after losing the previous two titles it seemed as though he was losing his iron grip as the world’s premier rider. The Italian though bounced back in style, dominating in ’08 in the first of back to back titles. Ominously for his rivals Rossi has once again been the pacesetter in testing after finishing five of six tests days as the fastest runner.
With limited testing for teams and riders it will be exceptionally difficult for others to catch Rossi. Pedrosa is using new suspension and has been poor in testing and with the only running available to him during race weekends it is highly unlikely that the diminutive Spaniard will be winning races at the start of the season. But that is preciously what he needs to do otherwise the erstwhile golden boy of the Honda Racing Corporation will find himself cast aside and forced to seek employment elsewhere.
Ducati rider Casey Stoner promises to Rossi’s chief advisory for the title. The 2007 champion has prodigious speed and after an illness plagued ’09 will look to bounce back with aplomb this year. The Australian missed three races last summer but came back to win two of the last four races. Indeed his home victory at Philip Island was probably one of the best defensive rides for many years as he held off Rossi for the win.
Jorge Lorenzo is Rossi’s teammate for Yamaha but the relationship is a strained one between the pair. A dividing wall has separated the pair for the last two years inside their garage and while information flows between the pair the tension is obvious. A lot of this has to do with the fact that Lorenzo is incredibly talented and has the mental resilience not to crack under the strain of going toe to toe with Rossi. Unfortunately his hand is not so resilient; Lorenzo fractured a bone and displaced his thumb after a slow speed accident over the winter. After struggling to do more than five laps at a time in the most recent test it is unlikely that the likeable 22 year old will have the speed to compete with his teammate and Stoner for the first few races but once he returns to full fitness the grid will have its hands full trying to keep him at bay.
A classic battle looks set for the premier class title but it would take someone very brave to bet against Rossi. If Stoner can stay healthy all year he has the potential to be a thorn in the Italians side. Outside of that the main surprise might well be the demise of one of the other aliens. With Lorenzo's injury concerns and Pedrosa struggling on the Honda the way could clear for a surprise in the top four. Colin Edwards and Ben Spies look primed to have their share of scalps but 2006 World Champion Nicky Hayden has been promising in testing for Ducati. Testing make questions but Sunday will provide answers.
While the battle for the title in MotoGP promises to be immense the battle on the track in Moto2 and in the 125’s should be just as good. This year sees replacement of the 250 class the start of Moto2. With the sale of two stroke machines dwindling world wide it was decided that creating a new 600cc four stroke class was the way forward; as a result Moto2 was born. This season should see a fantastic battle to see who the inaugural champion becomes with 36 riders entered for the championship.
Moto2 has an exceptional field of riders led by Toni Elias and Alex de Angelis stepping down from MotoGP but they will be competing with some incumbent 250cc riders such as Mike de Meglio, Mattia Pasini and Jules Cluzel. Julian Simon, Andrea Iannone and Scott Redding all move up from 125’s. The grid is packed with race winners and world champions and the battle between them should be immense.
Generally the smaller classes are filled with riders who dream of getting into MotoGP so there is huge potential for excitement as youngsters blindly ride beyond the limits of their machine in an attempt to cement their reputations as a potential champion. A ‘rostrum or hospital’ mentality can prevail with daring moves destined to end in disaster a fairly common sight as races draw to a close.
It is in these smaller classes that the likes of Rossi learnt their craft and each year there is potential for motorcycle’s next superstar to be unearthed in the smaller classes. With only a second separating the top 20 at the most recent group test the only thing that seems to be predictable about Moto2 is its unpredictability!
The smallest class is reserved for the 125cc machines. This category has historically been the first step for any would be Grand Prix rider. This category is all about momentum and corner speed. Riders do not have massive amounts of power due to the small capacity of the engine and as a result it is all about keeping the engine in its sweet spot and maximising the power available to the rider. This year sees an exceptionally open title race with seven riders expected to challenge for the championship, but each year in this class riders come out of nowhere and become race winners after learning their craft for one or two years.
Bradley Smith starts the year as slight the favourite but the British teenager knows that it is now or never for him to win the title. As a works Aprilia rider he will have the best bike on the grid but the vice-champion from last season faces a struggle from inside his own team if he is too win the title. Nico Terol joins Smith at the Aspar team and the Spaniard who won twice last season will expect to compete at the very front of the field. Another Spaniard, Marc Marquez, has joined a new team this year. After spending two years on the KTM he moves to Aprilia and will be searching for his first Grand Prix victory. While it may seem unlikely that a rider without a win would suddenly become a title challenger it is worth remembering that Marquez had a less powerful bike in the past and still has set pole positions and finished on the rostrum. The rest of the grid would be advised to underestimate the smallest man in the field at their pearl.
Pol Espargaro and Jonas Folger are also expected to be title challengers. Espargaro has won races in the past and last season blossomed into a potential world champion. Folger starts the year as an outsider but was sensational at times last season as a rookie. The German could have won races with a bit more experience and it is highly unlikely that he will not win at least once this year.
The great thing about the 125cc class is that any rider can come from the pack and suddenly develop into a front line race winner. Experience counts for a lot in this class as most riders are quite young. Once riders have two years under their belt not much will surprise them about the racing and the bikes and as a result riders that crashed a lot and struggled for pace suddenly morph into world beaters. Who will do that this season? With Smith, Terol and Marquez already experienced they will be expected to challenge for the title but outsiders such as Danny Webb could challenge. Second year rider Johan Zarco showed flashes of brilliance last year and will look to build on that. As far as rookies are concerned Marcel Schrotter looks a potential star and could well challenge at the front during the year.
