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2011 MotoGP Qatar race report and results – Stoner pulls away to win

Sport Rider's in-depth race report on the 2011 MotoGP of Qatar by Henny Ray Abrams, with behind the scenes info you don't get anywhere elseLOSAIL, QATAR, MARCH 20 – When Casey Stoner was at LCR Honda in 2006, his crew chief was Ramon Forcada, the Spaniard who would go on to join Jorge Lorenzo on the Yamaha works team. Stoner showed blistering speed, even early on, but what Forcada saw of Stoner’s work ethic apparently didn’t impress him. The day before the MotoGP season kicked off in Qatar, Forcada told the Madrid daily “Marca,� “He races like a wounded bull. He doesn’t like to practice, he's never been in a gym in his life, he doesn’t diet, he doesn’t take care of himself, and his head fails him. But if he worked like Rossi or Lorenzo, he’d run by himself.� After Stoner’s domination this weekend, that’s a scary thought.

Stoner led every practice session and qualifying and often by margins that struck fear into his competition. When he lined up for 22 laps of the 5.380km circuit in the desert east of Doha, the expectation was that he’d be a ghost, that he’d disappear only to reappear on the podium. It didn’t quite happen that way, but Stoner was fine with it.

What he’d learned in the morning warm-up was that the Repsol Honda RC212V didn’t like a full tank of fuel, and Stoner’s more comfortable on used tires. So he had to bide his time, watch others grab the spotlight, all the while knowing his time would come. It did. On the 13th lap Stoner set the fast lap of the race, and put nearly a second on Dani Pedrosa, his teammate whose race was soon to come apart.

Once in his comfort zone, Stoner was untouchable, growing the gap lap after lap and leaving no doubt that the 2011 season was going to be difficult for the others. By the time the checkered flag waved, Stoner had 3.44 seconds in hand and his first win in his first ride on a factory Honda.

The win was his fourth in the premier class at a track he doesn’t much care for, and Honda’s first in an opening round since Valentino Rossi began his 2003 championship season with a win in Suzuka.




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