By Rahul Banerji
Six-time world champion Marc Marquez will be missing from the grid at the 2021 MotoGP season opener, the Barwa Grand Prix of Qatar, on Sunday.
The Spaniard, who was injured early in the truncated 2020 season opened the way for a host of challengers, one of whom went on to win the championship.
Spain’s Joan Mir, who made the most of Marquez’s absence, will look to defend his motorcycle world championship title this year but knows a long road lies ahead.
“Yes. So happy to be here again,” the Team Suzuki Ecstar rider said ahead of the MotoGP season-opener at the Losail International Circuit.
“Last year we did a really good season, a dream to achieve the championship. We are here in Qatar, everyone starts from zero and it will be important to feel great here.
“I’m looking forward to this season, we have a great challenge ahead of us defending the title and we’ll do as good as we can so let’s see.”
Long list
Challenging Mir are Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team), Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP), Pol Espargaro (Repsol Honda Team) and Valentino Rossi (Petronas Yamaha SRT).
Nine-time world champion Rossi is with a new MotoGP team this year and looking to achieve his 200th career podium finish as early as possible.
Both Mir and team-mate Alex Rins had a quiet pre-season test, but Mir was relishing the weekend ahead and the “great challenge” that faces him and the team this year.
Hot on his heels is likely to be Australia’s Miller.
Fastest on the timesheets here earlier this month, Ducati’s Miller is tipped as one of the favourite title contenders in 2021 – and for good reason.
“Yeah I feel ready as I’ll ever be. We didn’t get that big a break, I went back to Australia for a bit but not as much as I’d like,” Miller said pre-race.
“Times were good in testing but we can’t look into it too much, the conditions were perfect. It will be a bit different with Dunlop rubber on the track so we’ll come in with an open mind.”
New blood
Minus Marquez, Repsol Honda went winless in the 2020 MotoGP season.
The sport’s most decorated manufacturer signed up Pol Espargaro to partner Marquez this year and if testing is anything to go by then the young man has settled in well.
“It was a difficult beginning to the season because we just had four days of testing,” said Espargaro.
“For the rookies it was even worse but also for the guys who changed bikes, it was not the best preseason.
“Anyways even with those four days, the final day I felt comfortable and I could do something interesting with race pace, at least to start to think about where to be on the race.
“On one lap we weren’t far from Jack Miller, we know he is very fast, but still I think we have a lot to learn and it will be a little bit difficult, but we will enjoy the first race of the season.”
Winner of three races in 2021, Fabio Quartararo will be eager to mount a season-long title challenge this season now he is in factory colours.
All four YZR-M1s looked in decent trim during pre-season testing and the Frenchman explained how he’d been able to learn from his difficult end to the year last time out.
“Yes, I think that last year and the end of the season was difficult, but I think I have learned many things that can bring me a lot of experience for the future and this year.
“It feels like it has been high and low, but I feel ready for 2021 and I think that is the most important thing.”
Doctor on the go
Feeling ready for the 2021 season is something that at 42 years of age may sound very daunting. Not to Rossi though.
In his 26th Grand Prix season, Rossi was as fast as ever around Losail and said he had the same buzz as for the previous 26 years on the first Thursday of the season.
“Yes the atmosphere of Thursday of the first race is always the same, like the first day of school,” The Doctor said.
“It’s always exciting, also for the pictures together on the grid, you have the feeling that in some hours we start.
“I changed team after a long, long time, but I feel good. The atmosphere is good and the test was not so bad, now we have to see in a real race weekend.”
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