Will Marc Marquez climb to the top step of the podium on Sunday at the end of the first Grand Prix of the MotoGP season, his first with Ducati? This is the hope of many fans, who see his departure from Honda as the turning point in a career that still has the possibility of taking off again.
#93's personal stats leave no doubt about his potential, but what about those of his new team? If the fans are superstitious, perhaps this is precisely where their hopes lie, given that the first Grand Prix of this championship will take place on a pitch that has already smiled on the Italian team at key moments in its history.
On paper, Lusail is not the most favorable circuit for Marquez, despite having the most successful CV of the current era. In any case, he has only won once in MotoGP, ten years ago, and another time in Moto2 two years earlier.
In 2014, that success was part of an extraordinary run of ten consecutive victories by the Spaniard in the first ten rounds of the season. But he was unable to return to winning in Qatar, not even in 2019, when he achieved a record season with the highest number of points scored in the championship (according to the proportions of the time, before the introduction of the Sprints) and a total of 12 wins of the season.
However, Marc Marquez only faced Lusail aboard the Honda, and this is where the difference lies in this 2024 edition of the night Grand Prix. Ducati, for its part, has a solid track record on this circuit, with four victories in the last six years. And as for his new team's stats…
Gresini's three victories in Qatar
Unlike Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing is particularly fond of the Losail circuit. The team has won here three times and each time the victories have left an indelible mark.
The first was the first MotoGP Qatar Grand Prix, in 2004. Twenty years ago, the event did not yet take place at night, but in autumn and in hellish heat. In 40°C conditions, it was Sete Gibernau who took the win, dominating the race from start to finish from the front row. The Spaniard, runner-up in that year's World Championship, was riding the Honda RC211V of the Gresini Racing team, then in the colors of Movistar.
Eighteen years later, in 2022, everything had changed for the Italian team. Its boss Fausto Gresini was no longer there, the team had supported the Aprilia program for a certain period and had returned to being an independent team, opening a new chapter with Ducati. And it was a new face who seized his opportunity in the Qatar GP, which for many years has become the traditional opening event of the championship.
Enea Bastianini embraces Nadia Padovani on the podium of the 2022 Qatar GP
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Enea Bastianini's success on the night in Qatar will be remembered as one of the great moments of MotoGP, both for him, who opened his account and established himself as one of the best riders in the category, and for his team, whose emotion it was personified by Nadia Padovani, the new boss, who was carried to the podium in triumph by the Italian driver.
Fifth at the start of the race, Bastianini gradually worked his way up the ranks, eventually overtaking Brad Binder and Pol Espargaro in the final laps. A victory that brought tears and laughter and inaugurated a new era for Gresini.
If Enea Bastianini's victory in 2022 will remain a unique moment, Fabio Di Giannantonio's in 2023 was no less incredible. Work on the circuit has moved the Grand Prix to the autumn, making it the penultimate round of the championship. Di Giannantonio found himself in a difficult position, knowing he had been replaced by Marquez for the 2024 season and having failed to secure the vacant seat at Repsol Honda to remain in MotoGP.
His two years in the category were difficult, success was slow in coming, yet it was precisely in this context that he achieved his first victory. Di Giannantonio knew he was fit for a few weeks, but in the midst of the Bagnaia-Martin duel for the title, the Roman rider defied the odds to take an authoritative victory that saved his place on the grid at the last minute.
All the winners of the Qatar MotoGP GP
In twenty years of MotoGP Grands Prix in Qatar, taking into account that there were no races in 2020 and that two were held in 2021, Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner have won most often on this track, four times each. Jorge Lorenzo has won three times, Maverick Vinales and Andrea Dovizioso twice. As for the manufacturers, Yamaha is still ahead with ten victories, against Ducati's seven and Honda's three, but the recent momentum is definitely in favor of Ducati… and Gresini.
* Doha Grand Prix
Gresini Racing celebrates a double in the first Qatar GP, with victory for Sete Gibernau ahead of Colin Edwards
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
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