2009 Qatar motorcycle Grand Prix

Qatar  2009 Qatar Grand Prix
Race details
Race 1 of 17 races in the
2009 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
Date 12–13 April 2009
Location Losail Circuit
Course Permanent racing facility
5.380 km (3.343 mi)
MotoGP
Pole position
Rider Australia Casey Stoner
Time 1:55.286
Fastest lap
Rider Australia Casey Stoner
Time 1:55.844
Podium
First Australia Casey Stoner
Second Italy Valentino Rossi
Third Spain Jorge Lorenzo
250 cc
Pole position
Rider Spain Álvaro Bautista
Time 2:00.677
Fastest lap
Rider Japan Hiroshi Aoyama
Time 2:01.752
Podium
First Spain Héctor Barberá
Second France Jules Cluzel
Third France Mike Di Meglio
125 cc
Pole position
Rider Spain Julián Simón
Time 2:06.974
Fastest lap
Rider Spain Julián Simón
Time 2:06.969
Podium
First Italy Andrea Iannone
Second Spain Julián Simón
Third Germany Sandro Cortese

The 2009 Qatar motorcycle Grand Prix was the opening round of the 2009 MotoGP championship. It had originally been due to place on the weekend of 10–13 April 2009 at the Losail International Circuit located in Doha, Qatar. However, the meeting was extended to 13 April, as the MotoGP race was postponed to this date, due to adverse weather conditions on 12 April.[1] The problems were compounded by the event being held at night under floodlights[1] for the benefit of European TV viewers.[2]

Report

The whole Grand Prix was disrupted by a rare event of rain in Doha, coupled with the impossibility of racing in the wet under floodlights. The 125cc race started at the scheduled time, despite rain being forecast sometime during the race. During the third lap rain began to fall, and the race was finally called after the fourth lap. Shortly after, it was decided to consider the race finished, so Andrea Iannone, who was leading at the time the red-flagged was exposed, was declared the winner and half points were given, since they failed to complete two thirds of the full race distance (18 laps).[3] This was lucky for Julián Simón as he had crashed after the red flag was shown, and manage to recover back to the track, and was thus classified in second.

After this, talk began to decide whether to race the other two classes or not, since racing with rain in the night could pose a serious threat to riders' safety due to the glare off the track. The organizers, together with safety representative Franco Uncini and riders including Valentino Rossi and Loris Capirossi, made several reconnaissance journeys around the track, which was drying after rain stopped to fall. It was ultimately decided to start the 250cc race, 40 minutes after it was originally scheduled to run. The original race distance of 20 laps was reduced to 13 laps, allowing full points to be awarded while not causing a delay to the MotoGP race.[4] The race went on without problems, and Hector Barbera won the race ahead of a surprising Jules Cluzel. A frantic multi-bike battle for third place ultimately saw Mike Di Meglio finish third after overtaking team-mate Álvaro Bautista and Raffaele de Rosa on the final lap; Hiroshi Aoyama also passed those riders to take 4th place.

MotoGP was kept in its original timeslot. However, shortly before the formation lap, rain began to fall again, and the intensity this time was much higher than the previous. The organisers decided to cancel the event, since the track was too damp to race. After negotiations, it was decided to move the race to the following day, in hope of better weather conditions.[1] The start time was also moved to 21:00 local time, having originally been 23:00.

The Monday race started without problems. The victory went to Casey Stoner, who made a good start from pole and then led the entire race, pulling a comfortable gap over his opponents.[5] Valentino Rossi finished second; he tried to catch the Australian, coming as near as two seconds from him, but ultimately he had to settle for second, his Yamaha suffering with tyre problems.[6] Third was Jorge Lorenzo, coming a distant 16 seconds from Stoner.[7]

MotoGP classification

Pos No Rider Manufacturer Laps Time Grid Points
1 27 Australia Casey Stoner Ducati 22 42:53.984 1 25
2 46 Italy Valentino Rossi Yamaha 22 + 7.771 2 20
3 99 Spain Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 22 + 16.244 3 16
4 5 United States Colin Edwards Yamaha 22 + 24.410 6 13
5 4 Italy Andrea Dovizioso Honda 22 + 27.263 4 11
6 15 San Marino Alex de Angelis Honda 22 + 29.883 9 10
7 7 Australia Chris Vermeulen Suzuki 22 + 33.627 8 9
8 36 Finland Mika Kallio Ducati 22 + 34.755 10 8
9 24 Spain Toni Elías Honda 22 + 39.481 12 7
10 14 France Randy de Puniet Honda 22 + 42.284 7 6
11 3 Spain Dani Pedrosa Honda 22 + 48.526 14 5
12 69 United States Nicky Hayden Ducati 22 + 48.883 16 4
13 59 Spain Sete Gibernau Ducati 22 + 52.215 15 3
14 33 Italy Marco Melandri Kawasaki 22 + 56.379 11 2
15 72 Japan Yuki Takahashi Honda 22 + 1:00.286 17 1
16 52 United Kingdom James Toseland Yamaha 22 + 1:14.978 13
17 88 Italy Niccolò Canepa Ducati 22 + 1:15.028 18
Ret 65 Italy Loris Capirossi Suzuki 7 Accident 5

250 cc classification

Pos No Rider Manufacturer Laps Time Grid Points
1 40 Spain Héctor Barberá Aprilia 13 26:50.940 4 25
2 16 France Jules Cluzel Aprilia 13 + 0.826 13 20
3 63 France Mike Di Meglio Aprilia 13 + 6.181 3 16
4 4 Japan Hiroshi Aoyama Honda 13 + 6.609 2 13
5 35 Italy Raffaele De Rosa Honda 13 + 6.656 14 11
6 12 Switzerland Thomas Lüthi Aprilia 13 + 6.672 9 10
7 19 Spain Álvaro Bautista Aprilia 13 + 7.608 1 9
8 14 Thailand Ratthapark Wilairot Honda 13 + 8.349 12 8
9 15 Italy Roberto Locatelli Gilera 13 + 15.032 10 7
10 28 Hungary Gábor Talmácsi Aprilia 13 + 20.348 6 6
11 55 Spain Héctor Faubel Honda 13 + 20.465 5 5
12 48 Japan Shoya Tomizawa Honda 13 + 28.402 16 4
13 52 Czech Republic Lukáš Pešek Aprilia 13 + 28.906 15 3
14 6 Spain Alex Debón Aprilia 13 + 33.779 8 2
15 25 Italy Alex Baldolini Aprilia 13 + 36.988 17 1
16 8 Switzerland Bastien Chesaux Honda 13 + 1:01.730 21
17 10 Hungary Imre Tóth Aprilia 13 + 1:03.512 18
18 56 Russia Vladimir Leonov Aprilia 13 + 1:32.385 20
19 77 Spain Aitor Rodríguez Aprilia 13 + 1:38.752 22
Ret 17 Czech Republic Karel Abraham Aprilia 8 Retirement 11
Ret 7 Spain Axel Pons Aprilia 0 Accident 19
Ret 75 Italy Mattia Pasini Aprilia 0 Accident 7

125 cc classification

Pos No Rider Manufacturer Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 29 Italy Andrea Iannone Aprilia 4 8:37.245 3 12.5
2 60 Spain Julián Simón Aprilia 4 + 0.180 1 10
3 11 Germany Sandro Cortese Derbi 4 + 5.211 5 8
4 44 Spain Pol Espargaró Derbi 4 + 5.769 8 6.5
5 38 United Kingdom Bradley Smith Aprilia 4 + 6.650 2 5.5
6 94 Germany Jonas Folger Aprilia 4 + 6.701 10 5
7 18 Spain Nicolás Terol Aprilia 4 + 6.771 4 4.5
8 17 Germany Stefan Bradl Aprilia 4 + 7.592 7 4
9 99 United Kingdom Danny Webb Aprilia 4 + 8.169 13 3.5
10 12 Spain Esteve Rabat Aprilia 4 + 8.678 15 3
11 77 Switzerland Dominique Aegerter Derbi 4 + 12.232 18 2.5
12 33 Spain Sergio Gadea Aprilia 4 + 12.237 6 2
13 45 United Kingdom Scott Redding Aprilia 4 + 12.360 11 1.5
14 24 Italy Simone Corsi Aprilia 4 + 13.754 19 1
15 14 France Johann Zarco Aprilia 4 + 13.783 14 0.5
16 16 United States Cameron Beaubier KTM 4 + 13.893 22  
17 7 Spain Efrén Vázquez Derbi 4 + 14.170 21  
18 6 Spain Joan Olivé Derbi 4 + 14.452 12  
19 8 Italy Lorenzo Zanetti Aprilia 4 + 15.310 20  
20 73 Japan Takaaki Nakagami Aprilia 4 + 16.415 16  
21 32 Italy Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia 4 + 18.602 23  
22 35 Switzerland Randy Krummenacher Aprilia 4 + 19.355 17  
23 53 Netherlands Jasper Iwema Honda 4 + 28.034 25  
24 87 Italy Luca Marconi Aprilia 4 + 28.114 24  
25 69 Czech Republic Lukáš Šembera Aprilia 4 + 28.199 25  
26 5 France Alexis Masbou Loncin 4 + 28.272 28  
27 71 Japan Tomoyoshi Koyama Loncin 4 + 28.544 27  
28 10 Italy Luca Vitali Aprilia 4 + 53.927 30  
Ret 93 Spain Marc Márquez KTM 3 Accident 9  
Ret 88 Austria Michael Ranseder Haojue 3 Mechanical 29  
DNS 66 United Kingdom Matthew Hoyle Haojue 31  

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Qatar MotoGP to be run on Monday". BBC Sport (BBC). 2009-04-12. Archived from the original on 13 April 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-12.
  2. Birt, Matthew (2007-08-31). "Misano MotoGP: Night race for Qatar MotoGP in 2008". Motorcycle News (Bauer Media Group). Archived from the original on 2009-08-11. Retrieved 2009-04-13.
  3. Lostia, Michele (2009-04-12). "Iannone wins truncated Qatar race". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). Archived from the original on 2009-08-11. Retrieved 2009-04-12.
  4. Beer, Matt (2009-04-12). "250cc race delayed and shortened". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). Archived from the original on 2009-08-11. Retrieved 2009-04-12.
  5. "Stoner takes win in MotoGP opener". BBC Sport. 2009-04-13. Archived from the original on 26 April 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-27.
  6. Lostia, Michele (2009-04-13). "Rossi admits he settled for second". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). Archived from the original on 2009-08-11. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
  7. Lostia, Michele (2009-04-13). "Stoner claims third Qatar MotoGP win". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). Archived from the original on 16 April 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
Previous race:
2008 Valencian Community Grand Prix
FIM Grand Prix World Championship
2009 season
Next race:
2009 Japanese Grand Prix
Previous race:
2008 Qatar Grand Prix
Qatar motorcycle Grand Prix Next race:
2010 Qatar Grand Prix
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