While there were plenty of challengers, last season’s two MotoGP title contenders 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Francesco Bagnaia and 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Jorge Martin reigned supreme in the two races.

But h🍃ere are mahbx.com’s five biggest talking points from the Qata🌠r MotoGP round.

5 - Yamaha are in crisis

Following a pre-season where Yamaha struggled to show steps forward compared to their rivals, the season-opener in Qatar quickly turned into🍬 disaster.

Faster than Honda in 2023, that same statement can not 🐲be made as Joan Mir was quicker than Fabio Quartararo for large parts of the grand prix.

Honda also sh🐷o💖wed greater speed over one lap which continues to be Yamaha’s weakest area.

Quart♉araro nor Rins could produce the type of lap times ne🧜eded to get close to joining Q2.

While in the sprint race Yamaha made the smallest jump of any manufacturer in lap tꦓime at the Qatar compared to round five months ago.

I𝓰n the grand prix, Quartararo was 17 seconds off the win and nearly 16 secondsဣ off the podium.

4 - Aprilia fails to deliver, again!

Aleix Espargaro ended the sprint race as the fastest rider o🍃n circuit, leading to others such as Marc Marquez tipping him to be a pre-race favourite for🐭 Sunday.

Third in the sprint, a poor start in the grand prix changed everything as Espargaro b♋arely made any progress as the race went on.

Espargaro blamed the rear ty✃re for his lack of pace but after several rounds in 2023 where Aprilia showed the same race-winning potential before fluffing the♔ir lines, the Qatar round gave little to suggest that this will be rectified in 2024.

What is 💃a positive for Espargaro is that he has th🐭e potential to win, something that does not seem to be the case for Maverick VInales at present.

Tenth in the grand prix, Vinales had a weekend to forget after alreꦕady struggling in pre-season with the new 24 RS-GP. 

3 - Factory riders feeling the pressure…

There were many standout rides throughout the week꧅end, many of which came from satellite team riders wh𒅌o are hoping to become full factory riders in 2025.

The first of those was Jo🍌rgeღ Martin. Runner-up last season, Martin continued his domination of the sprint format by winning his 10 sprint in 21 attempts.

Arguably the favourite for the sec🌄ond factory Ducati seat alongside Bagnaia next season, Martin did himself no harm with another strong weekend.

Also quicker than Enea Bastianini wཧas Marc Marquez who had a blinder o꧂f a first round for Gresini Ducati.

Close to the podi💜um in both races, Marquez finished the sprint in fifth before going one 𝓰better in the grand prix.

At KTM, Jack Miller had a ❀disaster as he crashed on lap two while rookie sensation Pedro Acosta showed huge potential aboard his Red Bull GASGAS Tech 3 KTM.

Over🅰takes on Marc Marquez, Alex Marquez, 2023 Qatar w𝔉inner Fabio Di Giannantonio and Espargaro were made as he made himself known in the lead group until tyre wear struck late on.

Acosta’s potential was there for everyone to see and Miller will perhaps need his best season in MotoGP to hold off Acosta for the factory🥀 seat in ♛2025.

2 - Brad Binder is a title contender

A🎶lthough he was unable to win either race, Binder was the toꦆp non-Ducati rider in both races as he applied huge pressure to Bagnaia and Martin.

The KTM is a great package,⛄ but Binder is clearly making the difference, something he’s been doing for several seasons.

Edge grip remains the biggest area of improvements KT🥀M needs to make to fight Ducati, but Binder has shown he can do so even with a bike that has slightly less performance than the Ducati.

Binder has to be seen as Ducati biggest threat for ✱the title due his immense speed, but also consistency which is something Aprilia’s factory duo are missing.

1 - Francesco Bagnaia remains MotoGP’s best rider

🧜Many riders are expected to win races in 2024, while the likes of Binder, Martin and Ma🔥rc Marquez are all thought of as potential title contenders.

But what Bagnaia did in the grand prix was remind everyo꧋ne of his strengths, strengths that are seemingly getting tougher and tougher to overcome.

Sure, Bagnaia does not have the greatest sprint record, but his abil💮ity to produce his best in the grand prix, which yields the most points, has to be respected.

But it’s not just his speed, Bagnaia has consistently been able to outsmart his rivals and use diffeꦦrent strategies in order to give him a greater chance of success.

Bagnaia knew that getting to the front was crucial in Sunday’s grand prix, not just to 💜control the pace, but also to give his front tyre clean air.

So Ba🧸gnaia was more aggressive than ✱his rivals and subsequently took the lead just a few corners into the race, despite starting fifth.

With other riders unsure how much to push, Bagnaia did exactly that eꦓarly on before responding to increased p🤪ace from Binder and Martin.