Finally, the wait ended on 10th March when the 2019 Qatar GP began. We were waiting impatiently for the 2019 MotoGP to commence. Two reasons for that – first, we were eager to watch another season of this awesome motorsport. Second, the changes in many teams would really make things even more interesting.
Anyway, the season-opening round of the 2019 MotoGP world championship didn’t let us down. It was one hell of a race. A clean, competitive, and thrilling round; and that’s how things should be. Most of you would agree that the best part of the 2019 Qatar GP was the fact that history was repeated – Andrea Dovizioso and Marc Marquez had an intense battle and they finished in a similar way as they did in 2018. Amazing!
This is just the beginning and we’ve got 18 more races to go to keep us entertained and overjoyed till the end of the year. The 2nd race is scheduled to take place on 31st March 2019 in Argentina.
Until that happens, here are 5 things that you should know about the Qatar GP.
1- The first edition of Qatar GP took place in 2004, while 2007 marked the first race held at night.
2- The floodlights of the Losail International Circuit, the only permanent circuit in the world with artificial lighting, light an area as big as 70 soccer fields and require 5.4 million watts of power – enough electricity to supply 3,000 homes.
3- The braking at the end of the straight is the second hardest in the entire MotoGP world championship, requiring brake-lever pressures of 8 kg over 5.1 seconds crossing a distance of 290 meters.
4- Danilo Petrucci clocked the highest ever speed at Losail in 2018, reaching 351.9 km/h on the main straight onboard his Desmosedici.
5- In 2004, in the 250cc class, Dovizioso finished the race tied with Lorenzo, with exactly the same time, and the win was assigned to Lorenzo based on the fastest lap during the race.
