Qatar Insists on Keeping Opening Night
Added on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 by Carole Nash Editor
Qatar hosted the sports first ever night race although some concerns were raised
Qatar will not be giving up its opening race venue status, according to Qatar Motor and Motorcycling Federation president Nasser Khalifa al-Attiyah.
Whilst the very first night race in MotoGP history was generally hailed as a success by race officials, teams and riders, concerns had been raised over the track temperature, with Valentino Rossi, Loris Capirossi and race winner Casey Stoner in particular all expressing some reservations about next year’s event.
But despite the concerns, Qatar, which is contracted to host the MotoGP opening race until 2016, will retain its place at the top of the Grand Prix calendar according to al-Attiyah.
“We have a contract with Dorna [the MotoGP rights holders] that says Qatar will host the opening race up to 2016 and that’s it,” al-Attiyah told the Gulf Times.
The QMMF president did however concede that the event and the start of the season may be delayed to allow track temperatures to rise, with suggestions being that a rescheduled race may coincide with the Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix, which is held in early April.
“A week before or after the Formula One is a good option from a business and marketing point of view because motor sport fans can take in both events on a 10-12 day Gulf trip.”
Suzuki rider Loris Capirossi led the campaign to get the Qatar event pushed back, claiming that the 13ºc temperatures experienced at Losail were too cold for the tyres.
“We asked to move the race to a little bit later because at night when the temperature drops it is a bit too cold for the tyres,” Capirossi told motogp.com.
“We spoke a lot with the Qatar officials and they say in April it can be minimum of five or six degrees hotter and that it is not bad.
“To have 20 degrees on the ground at 11pm is better than 13. Dorna is really open to understand this request. Qatar wants the first race of the season and that’s the same for next year and maybe we can start the season later.”
Al-Attiyah also suggested that the unusually extended winter experienced in Qatar may have caused the problem.
“Normally, it tends to get hotter at the end of February, but this year it was not the case,” he said.
