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MotoGP Qatar: News, gossip and intrigue

Just as we thought that the whole Rossi and Lorenzo dynamic may not descend into snipes and name calling, the two Movistar Yamaha riders pulled it out of the bag and had several pops at each other over the Qatar MotoGP weekend. After Rossi announced he was staying with Yamaha, Lorenzo said that it was inevitable because he didn’t have anywhere else to go. Rossi hit back at the Mallorcan, saying it takes balls to switch manufacturers so Lorenzo would stay at Yamaha.

This is off the track. On the track, Rossi spat his dummy because Lorenzo got in his way exiting the pitlane (something that Rossi got a penalty point for at Misano, he took pains to point out), spent several corners looking behind him before the two had handbags at the practice start area. This is going to run. Lin Jarvis may need the number of a builder before too much longer.

Cal Crutchlow’s electronics were something of a disaster in the desert. Not only does his engine brake not function properly, he didn’t get the new parts the factory boys got - we think a new clutch - to help alleviate the problem and then the timing loop sensor got confused as to where it was on the track, eventually dumping the Isle of Man resident into the gravel after playing silly buggers from lap one. The same thing happened to Nicky Hayden’s Ducati a couple of years ago.

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As the summer silly season now becomes spring, it looks like Maverick Vinales could find himself with three factory options as both Honda and Yamaha clamour for his signature, as does his current Suzuki team. By all accounts, Dani Pedrosa is looking closely at becoming Bradley Smith’s KTM team-mate while Lorenzo is waiting on a big offer from Ducati which they are strenuously denying they are going to make. Yeah, right ho.

It seems that Moto2 front runners Alex Rins and Johann Zarco are the target of Moto2 team as Davide Brivio will give the reigning champion a test on the Suzuki during the summer break while Rins has been mentioned a lot by both Lin Jarvis and Tech3 chief Herve Poncharal. Both could move up and join Sam Lowes in the big class.

Speaking of Moto2, the jump start debacle on Sunday has been explained by race director Mike Webb as a technical failure. Apparently the camera and recording facilities weren’t facilitating properly as some images were not displaying as they should. They identified six jumpers straight away and then after the period of four laps where ride throughs are no longer viable because of the rules, they banged 20s on Morbidelli and Cortese….

It looks like Danilo Petrucci could be ruled out of action until at least the Le Mans round after his injured hand flared up again in Qatar. Casey Stoner will not stand in but Michele Pirro will as he won’t embarrass the factory riders on a year-old bike.

Dani Pedrosa said the good thing about finishing miles behind team-mate Marc Marquez was he learned a lot about the bike… take from that what you will

Aleix Espargaro returned to his 2015 chassis for the Qatar race after experiencing big problems with the 2016 one. In fact, he called it a ‘horror weekend’ as he had no front-end feel from the bike, so reverted to last year’s. Team-mate Vinales appeared to have no such problems.

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