The 2019 MotoGP™ World Championship is almost go as all three classes get set to do battle under the lights at the Losail International Circuit this weekend, but there’s an important change to Moto2™ and Moto3™ qualifying that you should know about ahead of the opening round of the season.
This year, both the intermediate and lightweight classes will adopt the Qualifying 1 and Qualifying 2 format that we have seen for a number of years in the premier class.
The riders going directly into Q2 will be decided on their combined Free Practice times after FP3 has finished on Saturday. The 14 combined fastest riders will automatically book their place in Q2, with everyone else having to go out for a 15-minute Q1 session.
The four fastest riders from Q1 will then have a chance to fight for pole in Q2, with the second session also lasting 15 minutes. What’s more, during the two qualifying sessions, each rider will have an extra soft compound tyre at their disposal.
See below for Saturday’s timetable (at local time) for the Qatar GP:
13:25-14:05 - Moto3™ Free Practice 3
14:20-15:00 - Moto2™ Free Practice 3
15:15-16:00 - MotoGP™ Free Practice 3
17:30-17:45 - Moto3™ Qualifying 1
17:55-18:10 - Moto3™ Qualifying 2
18:25-18:40 - Moto2™ Qualifying 1
18:50-19:05 - Moto2™ Qualifying 2
19:20-19:50 - MotoGP™ Free Practice 4
20:00-20:15 - MotoGP™ Qualifying 1
20:25-20:40 - MotoGP™ Qualifying 2
21:30 - MotoGP™ post-qualifying Press Conference