The 2009 Qatar motorcycle Grand Prix was the opening round of the 2009 MotoGP championship. It had originally been due to place on the weekend of 10–12 April 2009 at the Losail International Circuit located in Doha, Qatar. However, the meeting was extended to 13 April, as the MotoGP race was postponed to this date, due to adverse weather conditions on 12 April. The problems were compounded by the event being held at night under floodlights for the benefit of European TV viewers.

This was the last MotoGP round in which a tobacco brand name (Marlboro) was visible on a bike.

Report The whole Grand Prix was disrupted by a rare event of rain in Doha, coupled with the impossibility of racing in the wet under floodlights. The 125cc race started at the scheduled time, despite rain being forecast sometime during the race. During the third lap rain began to fall, and the race was finally called after the fourth lap. Shortly after, it was decided to consider the race finished, so Andrea Iannone, who was leading at the time the red flag was exposed, was declared the winner and half points were given, since they failed to complete two thirds of the full race distance (18 laps). This was lucky for Julián Simón as he had crashed after the red flag was shown, and manage to recover back to the track, and was thus classified in second.

After this, talk began to decide whether to race the other two classes or not, since racing with rain in the night could pose a serious threat to riders' safety due to the glare off the track. The organizers, together with safety representative Franco Uncini and riders including Valentino Rossi and Loris Capirossi, made several reconnaissance journeys around the track, which was drying after rain stopped to fall. It was ultimately decided to start the 250cc race, 40 minutes after it was originally scheduled to run. The original race distance of 20 laps was reduced to 13 laps, allowing full points to be awarded while not causing a delay to the MotoGP race. The race went on without problems, and Héctor Barberá won the race ahead of a surprising Jules Cluzel. A frantic multi-bike battle for third place ultimately saw Mike Di Meglio finish third after overtaking teammate Álvaro Bautista and Raffaele De Rosa on the final lap; Hiroshi Aoyama also passed those riders to take 4th place.

MotoGP was kept in its original timeslot. However, shortly before the formation lap, rain began to fall again, and the intensity this time was much higher than the previous. The organisers decided to cancel the event, since the track was too damp to race. After negotiations, it was decided to move the race to the following day, in hope of better weather conditions. The start time was also moved to 21:00 local time, having originally been 23:00.

The Monday race started without problems. The victory went to Casey Stoner, who made a good start from pole and then led the entire race, pulling a comfortable gap over his opponents. Valentino Rossi finished second; he tried to catch the Australian, coming as near as two seconds from him, but ultimately he had to settle for second, his Yamaha suffering with tyre problems. Third was Jorge Lorenzo, coming a distant 16 seconds from Stoner.

MotoGP classification Pos. No. Rider Team Manufacturer Laps Time Grid Points 1 27 Casey Stoner Ducati Marlboro Team Ducati 22 42:53.984 1 25 2 46 Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha 22 +7.771 2 20 3 99 Jorge Lorenzo Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha 22 +16.244 3 16 4 5 Colin Edwards Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 22 +24.410 6 13 5 4 Andrea Dovizioso Repsol Honda Team Honda 22 +27.263 4 11 6 15 Alex de Angelis San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 22 +29.883 9 10 7 7 Chris Vermeulen Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 22 +33.627 8 9 8 36 Mika Kallio Pramac Racing Ducati 22 +34.755 10 8 9 24 Toni Elías San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 22 +39.481 12 7 10 14 Randy de Puniet LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 22 +42.284 7 6 11 3 Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team Honda 22 +48.526 14 5 12 69 Nicky Hayden Ducati Marlboro Team Ducati 22 +48.883 16 4 13 59 Sete Gibernau Grupo Francisco Hernando Ducati 22 +52.215 15 3 14 33 Marco Melandri Hayate Racing Team Kawasaki 22 +56.379 11 2 15 72 Yuki Takahashi Scot Racing Team MotoGP Honda 22 +1:00.286 17 1 16 52 James Toseland Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 22 +1:14.978 13 17 88 Niccolò Canepa Pramac Racing Ducati 22 +1:15.028 18 Ret 65 Loris Capirossi Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 7 Accident 5 Sources:

250 cc classification Pos. No. Rider Manufacturer Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 40 Héctor Barberá Aprilia 13 26:50.940 4 25 2 16 Jules Cluzel Aprilia 13 +0.826 13 20 3 63 Mike Di Meglio Aprilia 13 +6.181 3 16 4 4 Hiroshi Aoyama Honda 13 +6.609 2 13 5 35 Raffaele De Rosa Honda 13 +6.656 14 11 6 12 Thomas Lüthi Aprilia 13 +6.672 9 10 7 19 Álvaro Bautista Aprilia 13 +7.608 1 9 8 14 Ratthapark Wilairot Honda 13 +8.349 12 8 9 15 Roberto Locatelli Gilera 13 +15.032 10 7 10 28 Gábor Talmácsi Aprilia 13 +20.348 6 6 11 55 Héctor Faubel Honda 13 +20.465 5 5 12 48 Shoya Tomizawa Honda 13 +28.402 16 4 13 52 Lukáš Pešek Aprilia 13 +28.906 15 3 14 6 Alex Debón Aprilia 13 +33.779 8 2 15 25 Alex Baldolini Aprilia 13 +36.988 17 1 16 8 Bastien Chesaux Honda 13 +1:01.730 21 17 10 Imre Tóth Aprilia 13 +1:03.512 18 18 56 Vladimir Leonov Aprilia 13 +1:32.385 20 19 77 Aitor Rodríguez Aprilia 13 +1:38.752 22 Ret 17 Karel Abraham Aprilia 8 Retirement 11 Ret 7 Axel Pons Aprilia 0 Accident 19 Ret 75 Mattia Pasini Aprilia 0 Retirement 7 DNS 58 Marco Simoncelli Gilera Did not start OFFICIAL 250cc REPORT

125 cc classification Pos. No. Rider Manufacturer Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 29 Andrea Iannone Aprilia 4 8:37.245 3 12.5 2 60 Julián Simón Aprilia 4 +0.180 1 10 3 11 Sandro Cortese Derbi 4 +5.211 5 8 4 44 Pol Espargaró Derbi 4 +5.769 8 6.5 5 38 Bradley Smith Aprilia 4 +6.650 2 5.5 6 94 Jonas Folger Aprilia 4 +6.701 10 5 7 18 Nicolás Terol Aprilia 4 +6.771 4 4.5 8 17 Stefan Bradl Aprilia 4 +7.592 7 4 9 99 Danny Webb Aprilia 4 +8.169 13 3.5 10 12 Esteve Rabat Aprilia 4 +8.678 15 3 11 77 Dominique Aegerter Derbi 4 +12.232 18 2.5 12 33 Sergio Gadea Aprilia 4 +12.237 6 2 13 45 Scott Redding Aprilia 4 +12.360 11 1.5 14 24 Simone Corsi Aprilia 4 +13.754 19 1 15 14 Johann Zarco Aprilia 4 +13.783 14 0.5 16 16 Cameron Beaubier KTM 4 +13.893 22 17 7 Efrén Vázquez Derbi 4 +14.170 21 18 6 Joan Olivé Derbi 4 +14.452 12 19 8 Lorenzo Zanetti Aprilia 4 +15.310 20 20 73 Takaaki Nakagami Aprilia 4 +16.415 16 21 32 Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia 4 +18.602 23 22 35 Randy Krummenacher Aprilia 4 +19.355 17 23 53 Jasper Iwema Honda 4 +28.034 25 24 87 Luca Marconi Aprilia 4 +28.114 24 25 69 Lukáš Šembera Aprilia 4 +28.199 25 26 5 Alexis Masbou Loncin 4 +28.272 28 27 71 Tomoyoshi Koyama Loncin 4 +28.544 27 28 10 Luca Vitali Aprilia 4 +53.927 30 Ret 93 Marc Márquez KTM 3 Accident 9 Ret 88 Michael Ranseder Haojue 3 Mechanical 29 DNS 66 Matthew Hoyle Haojue 0 Did not start 31 OFFICIAL 125cc REPORT

Championship standings after the race (MotoGP)

Below are the standings for the top five riders and constructors after round one has concluded.

Riders' Championship standings Rider Points 1 Casey Stoner 25 2 Valentino Rossi 20 3 Jorge Lorenzo 16 4 Colin Edwards 13 5 Andrea Dovizioso 11

Constructors' Championship standings Constructor Points 1 Ducati 25 2 Yamaha 20 3 Honda 11 4 Suzuki 9 5 Kawasaki 2

Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References