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MotoGP 2017 Qatar March 23-26 (spoilers)

Discussion in 'General' started by I'm with Stupid, Mar 20, 2017.

  1. NemesisR6

    NemesisR6 Gristle McThornbody

    Isn't that track essentially wet most nights after the temp drops below the dew point anyways? I thought I remembered them saying they all the teams basically stopped at a certain point every evening due to the condensation.......
     
  2. caferace

    caferace No.

    You can't race in the rain at night there. The glare off the track is just too much.

    -jim
     
  3. tzrider

    tzrider CZrider

  4. L8 Braker

    L8 Braker 'Murica

    I got this guy...

    [​IMG]
     
    JJJerry likes this.
  5. flyboy

    flyboy Well-Known Member

    Going with Rossi!! This is his year!
     
    BigBird likes this.
  6. Potts N Pans

    Potts N Pans Well-Known Member

    Stoner to WC and win!
     
  7. Phl218

    Phl218 .

    I got Lorenzo
     
    throwdown likes this.
  8. 2blueYam

    2blueYam Track Day Addict

    Stoner is going to the water closet and going to win?:D
     
  9. Potts N Pans

    Potts N Pans Well-Known Member

    Yep...he pisses excellence! :D
     
    BigBird likes this.
  10. Prospect

    Prospect Hayai

    What about the best of the rest?

    Rookie of the year? I say Folger.
     
    Phl218 likes this.
  11. caferace

    caferace No.

    from Repsol media:

    1.The Qatar Grand Prix will start the MotoGP season for the eleventh consecutive year (2007-2017). Losail is the track that has hosted the inaugural event of the season uninterrupted the most times. The closest rival is Suzuka (Japan), which started the season six times in a row between 1987 and 1992.

    2. The track was built in record time, in less than a year. Work began in October 2003, the first stone was laid in December of the same year in the presence of riders such as Mick Doohan and Valentino Rossi, and it was ready to host the first Qatar Grand Prix from September 30th, 2004.

    3. Around 1,000 people worked on its construction and it required an investment of 58 million dollars.

    4. The layout was approved by a MotoGP Safety Commission composed of Valentino Rossi, Sete Gibernau, Kenny Roberts Jr. and Nobuatsu Aoki.

    5. This weekend, two Qatari riders will participate in the Moto2 World Championship: Saeed Al Sulaiti (no. 91) and Mashel Al Naimi (no. 95). The latter has already competed in the Moto2 World Championship in 2010 and 2011, and participated as a wild card in Moto2 in 2014

    Rain in the desert

    6. The Losail circuit is about 30 kilometres north of Doha, the capital of Qatar. In this city it rains on average 8.8 days a year -about 75 millilitres in total. March is the second wettest month of the year, with an average of 1.8 wet days and a total of 16.1 millilitres rainfall.

    7. However, in 2009 rain caused the postponement of the MotoGP race until the Monday! Last week, rain forced the suspension of some of the testing sessions for Moto3 and Moto2. The forecast for the next few days points to possible rainfall, especially on Friday and Saturday.

    8. This Grand Prix was held during the day for four years (2004-2007), with an average track temperature of 45.5°C.

    9. On the 9 occasions it has taken place at night (2008-2016), the average temperature of the asphalt has been 22.8ºC, half that of during the day.

    Cava without alcohol

    10. The first night race took place on March 9th, 2008. Since then, more than 40 generators have been used to provide electricity for the 3,600 floodlights, which would illuminate 3,000 homes, 70 soccer pitches or a residential street that would run from Doha to Moscow -two cities separated by approximately 4,600 kilometres.

    11. Losail hosted 24,866 spectators between the four days of the 2016 Grand Prix. It has a single stand with a capacity of 7,500.

    12. 77.5 per cent of Qataris are Muslims. The podium ceremony features cava without alcohol.

    13. The riders use much more transparent visors in their helmets to adapt to the Qatari night.

    Three other international events

    14. The Losail International Circuit organises activity days for women only, such as sessions for running, cycling or walking along the track. The next will be held on April 4th and 18th.

    15. In addition to the MotoGP World Championship, Losail will host three other international events in 2017: World Superbikes, Motocross and the World Touring Car Championship.

    16. In the early years, track marshals came from European circuits, such as Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, to train the local marshals.

    17. The Qatarí track has a strong Spanish flavour: it is directed by Juan Baquero, former director of the Circuito de Jerez, and the commercial director -Albert Bellido, press officer -Neus Ramos- and director of events and operations -Raquel Serrabella- are also Spaniards.

    18. It is one of the circuits with the greatest fuel consumption of the whole season.

    19. The World Championship was one of the first major international events hosted by Qatar. Previously it had only hosted the Asian Football Cup (1988), had entered the men’s ATP tennis circuit in 1993, two years later held the FIFA Under-20s World Cup, debuted on the European men’s golf calendar in 1998, and In 2002 hosted an international cycling event.

    20. Doha was chosen in 2014 to host the 2019 Open-Air Athletics World Cup and be host country of the FIFA World Cup in 2022.

    21. Qatar is the country with the highest per capita income in the world ($ 129,700) thanks to oil revenues and, above all, natural gas revenues. A litre of fuel costs between 30 and 35 cents.

    22. The country has the third largest proven natural gas reserves and has the second lowest unemployment rate in the world (0.7%). It is one of the few places where citizens do not pay taxes.

    23. Qatar gained independence from the United Kingdom on September 3rd, 1971, and has 2.2 million inhabitants.
     
    Boman Forklift likes this.
  12. The Great One

    The Great One Well-Known Member

    Press conference starts now!
     
  13. ajcjr

    ajcjr Well-Known Member

    Who is the blonde on motogp live?
     
  14. The Great One

    The Great One Well-Known Member

    Amy? The chick that was there all last year? :D
     
    BigBird likes this.
  15. ajcjr

    ajcjr Well-Known Member

    I didn't have the gp pass lol.
     
  16. The Great One

    The Great One Well-Known Member

    Fair enough haha. Amy Dargan. From what I've read, Dorna gave her a lot of creative freedom last year when it came to producing some different types of content for MotoGP.com. Seems like a pretty cool and knowledgeable chick!
     
    ajcjr likes this.
  17. tzrider

    tzrider CZrider

    Re.: Conference.

    I groaned when they said they would finish with social media questions.

    Ended being the more interesting part(or at least they had decent ones and I was expecting worse).

    That and some of the regular journos need a beating whenever they start a question with "How do you feel....?

    I liked the Edwards/Agostini/Schwantz in bar/race/10 hour road trip question.... :D
     
  18. caferace

    caferace No.

    And Vale's answer was exactly as I anticipated.

    -jim
     
  19. RM Racing

    RM Racing Tool user

    Annoying as hell bikini model talking head who has no business on there. Get an ex rider or crew chief so we get some interesting insight instead of social media fluff. I turn the sound down immediately when she is on there.
     
  20. tzrider

    tzrider CZrider

    I also FFW Amy and the other bald guy.....

    No reason beyond the voice is annoying as fuck. :D
     

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