Five biggest talking points after the Qatar MotoGP

While there were plenty of challengers, last season’s two MotoGP title contenders Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin reigned supreme in the two races.

But here are crash.net’s five biggest talking points from the Qatar MotoGP round.

5 - Yamaha are in crisis

Following a pre-season where Yamaha struggled to show steps forward compared to their rivals, the season-opener in Qatar quickly turned into disaster.

Faster than Honda in 2023, that same statement can not be made as Joan Mir was quicker than Fabio Quartararo for large parts of the grand prix.

Honda also showed greater speed over one lap which continues to be Yamaha’s weakest area.

Quartararo nor Rins could produce the type of lap times needed to get close to joining Q2.

While in the sprint race Yamaha made the smallest jump of any manufacturer in lap time at the Qatar compared to round five months ago.

In the grand prix, Quartararo was 17 seconds off the win and nearly 16 seconds off the podium.

4 - Aprilia fails to deliver, again!

Aleix Espargaro ended the sprint race as the fastest rider on circuit, leading to others such as Marc Marquez tipping him to be a pre-race favourite for Sunday.

Third in the sprint, a poor start in the grand prix changed everything as Espargaro barely made any progress as the race went on.

Espargaro blamed the rear tyre for his lack of pace but after several rounds in 2023 where Aprilia showed the same race-winning potential before fluffing their lines, the Qatar round gave little to suggest that this will be rectified in 2024.

What is a positive for Espargaro is that he has the potential to win, something that does not seem to be the case for Maverick VInales at present.

Tenth in the grand prix, Vinales had a weekend to forget after already struggling in pre-season with the new 24 RS-GP. 

3 - Factory riders feeling the pressure…

There were many standout rides throughout the weekend, many of which came from satellite team riders who are hoping to become full factory riders in 2025.

The first of those was Jorge Martin. Runner-up last season, Martin continued his domination of the sprint format by winning his 10 sprint in 21 attempts.

Arguably the favourite for the second factory Ducati seat alongside Bagnaia next season, Martin did himself no harm with another strong weekend.

Also quicker than Enea Bastianini was Marc Marquez who had a blinder of a first round for Gresini Ducati.

Close to the podium in both races, Marquez finished the sprint in fifth before going one better in the grand prix.

At KTM, Jack Miller had a disaster as he crashed on lap two while rookie sensation Pedro Acosta showed huge potential aboard his Red Bull GASGAS Tech 3 KTM.

Overtakes on Marc Marquez, Alex Marquez, 2023 Qatar winner Fabio Di Giannantonio and Espargaro were made as he made himself known in the lead group until tyre wear struck late on.

Acosta’s potential was there for everyone to see and Miller will perhaps need his best season in MotoGP to hold off Acosta for the factory seat in 2025.

2 - Brad Binder is a title contender

Although he was unable to win either race, Binder was the top non-Ducati rider in both races as he applied huge pressure to Bagnaia and Martin.

The KTM is a great package, but Binder is clearly making the difference, something he’s been doing for several seasons.

Edge grip remains the biggest area of improvements KTM needs to make to fight Ducati, but Binder has shown he can do so even with a bike that has slightly less performance than the Ducati.

Binder has to be seen as Ducati biggest threat for the title due his immense speed, but also consistency which is something Aprilia’s factory duo are missing.

1 - Francesco Bagnaia remains MotoGP’s best rider

Many riders are expected to win races in 2024, while the likes of Binder, Martin and Marc Marquez are all thought of as potential title contenders.

But what Bagnaia did in the grand prix was remind everyone of his strengths, strengths that are seemingly getting tougher and tougher to overcome.

Sure, Bagnaia does not have the greatest sprint record, but his ability to produce his best in the grand prix, which yields the most points, has to be respected.

But it’s not just his speed, Bagnaia has consistently been able to outsmart his rivals and use different strategies in order to give him a greater chance of success.

Bagnaia knew that getting to the front was crucial in Sunday’s grand prix, not just to control the pace, but also to give his front tyre clean air.

So Bagnaia was more aggressive than his rivals and subsequently took the lead just a few corners into the race, despite starting fifth.

With other riders unsure how much to push, Bagnaia did exactly that early on before responding to increased pace from Binder and Martin.