MotoGP’s safety commission has politely requested that next year’s Qatar race be scheduled later in the calendar because of cold track temperatures. The race was first held there in 2004 but riders moaned because it was too hot, so it was made the season opener.
Now, in March, it’s too cold. But the track is, apparently, contracted to be the season opener until about the time Global Warming sets in, so Dorna might have to delay the first race next season until mid-April. Or Losail gets some nice under-track heating to go with its spanky new lights.

James Toseland and Colin Edwards are desperate to get the same Yamaha motor as Rossi and Lorenzo. No surprise there then.

Meanwhile, over at Honda, Nicky Hayden is equally as desperate to get a good, 2008-spec chassis because Dani Pedrosa, using said chassis, got third while the Kentucky Kid could only manage tenth.

Talking of Pedrosa, he seems not to have buried the hatchet with Jorge Lorenzo. The pair were bitter rivals when in 250s, which climaxed in one nerfing the other off at the Sachsenring in 2005. And a war of words began.
Anyway, Lorenzo claims that Pedrosa ignored him on the Qatar podium. Diddums…
And Ducati is taking its mobile grandstand to a goodly number of races this year, and you can buy tickets to sit in it.