NAGASHIMA’S EMOTIONAL WIN

There was no premier class but Qatar did witness Moto2 and 3 action where Tetsuta Nagashima clinched an emotional maiden victory after superb tyre management led to a late surge through the order. He dedicated his win to the late Shoya Tomizawa who, 10 years prior, won the first-ever Moto2 race. Lorenzo Baldassari and Enea Bastianini completed the podium. Joe Roberts clinched fourth after becoming the first American in a decade to take pole position. Some big names failed to score, with Luca Marini and Augusto Fernandez crashing out. Ducati MotoGP target Jorge Martin could only manage 20th.

60min/FP2 60min/FP3 60min/QP 60min

60min/FP2 60min/QP

August 7-9

August 21-23

September 4-6

September 18-20

October 2-4

October 16-18

Five points were all that separated champion Scott Redding and teammate Josh Brookes at the end of 2019. The duo fought tooth and nail all year long on the brand-new Ducati V4R. Redding ultimately came out on the top, with 11 wins to Brookes’ 10. In theory, 2020 presents Brookes with a fantastic opportunity to become a two-time BSB champion. Redding has moved to WSB, while Brookes remains with Paul Bird’s team, onboard the near-perfect Ducati. The highly experienced Australian has taken Redding’s smash and grab title win on the chin and has been looking at ways to improve.

“It’s not like I hate Scott Redding,” Brookes told MCN. “I hate that he beat me but that is my job to do better. I am happy with what I did last year but I would have preferred to have had a different result.”

Alongside his racing knowledge, Brookes’ Ducati is one of the very best on the grid. In fact, the V4R locked out the top three places in the riders’ standings last season.

“I think to date, it’s the best motorcycle I’ve ridden! There is no such thing as a perfect bike, but it does really do a lot of the things you ask of it very well. It’s setting new benchmarks for the championship. The bike was good last year, it just wasn’t good enough to beat Scott Redding all the time so it’s not like I need to look for really big improvements this year.” Brookes goes into the year as the third most successful BSB rider of all time with 49 victories, only Ryuichi Kiyonari and Shane Byrne have more.

2019 was a season to remember for Tommy Bridewell and Oxford Products Racing. With the Ducati V4R at his disposal, Bridewell was a constant thorn in the side of PBM’s Redding and Brookes. He eventually finished third overall after securing the team’s maiden BSB victory and stepping onto the podium multiple times.

It was a fantastic achievement for everybody involved. The private team beat the factory efforts from Kawasaki, Honda, BMW and Suzuki. It wasn’t a case of Bridewell being a distant third to the PBM duo either, more often than not he slotted between the titlechasing combatants. Everything appears to be heading in the right direction for the squad. Whether it’s the positive relationship he has with team boss Steve ‘Wilf’ Moore, the important weight reduction and upgrades made during the winter, or Bridewell’s sheer determination to become British Champion. Bridewell believes that PBM’s advantage may have been reduced, not only because of Redding’s departure, but also because they’ve lost Ducati Corser engineer, Giovanni Crupi.

Brookes is joined at PBM by Christian Iddon. This is Iddon’s golden opportunity to prove himself in the series, by becoming a race winner and consistent podium finisher after twice winning the Rider’s Cup – the highest placed non-showdown rider.

Despite suffering two serious injuries which ruled him out of a few races, Mackenzie qualified for the Showdown, celebrated his first victory and achieved four further podiums in 2019.

It’s true that in his second BSB campaign, Mackenzie learnt and achieved a lot through the good times and bad and this experience is clearly helping him to become the complete package.

“In 2018 I can remember a few riders like Shakey telling me that I needed to conserve the tyre, it’s a long race blah blah blah, and it was hard to do it in a rookie year,” Mackenzie told MCN. “I kind of understood it more last year, but I still need to improve on that side of things. There were times last year when the Ducatis were getting away and I tried like mad to stick with them and that’s maybe where I made a few mistakes.”

The 2020 R1 is a big improvement, with the BSB squad working closing with the World Superbike team and Yamaha. Key parts of the new R1 include radical aerodynamic improvements, more usable power and a new chassis.

“I’d love to be British Superbike Champion, and there’s no reason why I can’t do that. With the training I’ve had, I’ve taken a step in myself this winter and we’ve also taken a big step forward with the bike.”

O’Halloran’s 2019 season was hampered by injury – he broke both shoulders over the course of the year. When fit, O’Halloran was challenging towards the front and was on course for victory at Silverstone before his teammate took him out!

The Australian is in good shape heading into the new year following a successful testing programme on the new R1 and his own personal training regime which included trips to Loughborough University’s Human Performance Centre.

Instead of aiming for lap-times in Spain, O’Halloran focused on improving in certain areas and he’s certainly taken a shine to the new R1.

“I’m looking forward to racing it,” O’Halloran told MCN. “Any time you get onto a new bike, you pretty much know immediately whether you’re going to like it or not, and straight away I felt comfortable. Although the lap time might not be there and you’re still trying to adjust things, you’ve got a general feeling of what you’ve got and I felt really good straight away.”

2019 British GP2 champ gets a factory ride after riding the Superstock 1000 spec GSX-R at Donington last year.

Feb 28-Mar 1

Jul 31-Aug 2

Aug 7-9

Aug 28-30

Sep 4-6

Sep 18-20

Oct 2-4

While Scott Redding was the only rider to manage three podiums from as many races, Chaz Davies secured a best result of eighth. Redding arrived with a bang and his confidence and consistency left rivals very wary. Davies, three-time championship runner-up to Jonathan Rea, must improve his one-lap pace: qualifying 16th isn’t good enough for the 30-time race winner.

Aragon, a circuit where he’s won seven times!

When Toprak won race one he became the first rider in history to win for both Kawasaki and Yamaha. It wasn’t all plain sailing, though: an inexcusable team error in the final race saw him run out of fuel. Michael Van der Mark was disappointed to miss the podium despite fighting for it in all three races. He’ll be hungrier than ever to bounce back.

After four seasons with Yamaha, the Dutchman has been lured by BMW’s favourable remuneration – or does he know something we don’t about their future development plans? Toprak has been quiet and was pleased to get back testing as all top teams gathered at Barcelona in early July.

Australia was an expected strong start for Kawasaki, but more for Lowes than Rea. The world champion bounced back to win the Sprint Race after crashing out of the seasonopener, pushing too hard in a bid to overhaul the pack after being nerfed out of the lead by arch enemy Tom Sykes. Fourth in the championship after Round 1 is the lowest for Rea since he joined Kawasaki at the start of 2015. In the final race, Lowes beat JR in a straight fight to secure victory on his debut weekend with the team; it meant a trio of riders had won the encounters for the first time since the three-race format came in last year. easy on the baking track in August… they’ll be hoping for lots of hard compound front tyres. Rea has won 12 times at Assen, but it’s now off the calendar.