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General

MotoGP's Qatar Grand Prix

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Rins gives Ducati a taste of its own medicine, winding up a pass on Petrucci for P3 at Turn 1 - and completing it a corner later.
Dovizioso and Marquez have upped the pace and are starting to break away from the chasing pack.
Crash
Bagnaia has retired in the pits.
This is still a nine-bike race for the lead, with 1.6 seconds separating leader Dovizioso and ninth-placed Rossi.
Marquez pulls off an aggressive block-pass on Rins, which allows Petrucci to pounce on the Suzuki rider as well. 12 laps to go.
Information
Current order: 1 Dovizioso (back ahead), 2 Rins, 3 Marquez (back ahead), 4 Petrucci, 5 Mir, 6 Crutchlow, 7 Vinales, 8 Morbidelli, 9 Rossi, 10 Miller, 11 Nakagami, 12 A Espargaro, 13 Oliveira, 14 P Espargaro, 15 Iannone, 16 Zarco, 17 Lorenzo, 18 Quartararo, 19 Rabat, 20 Abraham, 21 Smith, 22 Syahrin, 23 Bagnaia.
Rins is predictably back through on Dovizioso - but crucially, a charging Petrucci has now passed Marquez for third!
Dovizioso has re-passed Rins again into Turn 1. Rins(e), repeat, if you will.
Rins overtakes Dovizioso yet again. He's running most of the lap ahead but he still cannot build enough of a gap to survive the slipstream.

The good thing is, on the final lap that might not matter.
Something has happened to Bagnaia, who is now running P23 and last on his MotoGP debut.
Marquez is putting pressure on Dovizioso, and this almost allows Rins to make a break for it. But the GP19 is a monster on the main straight, and Dovizioso retakes the lead into Turn 1.
Rins is back ahead of Dovizioso, and now needs to make a break for it before the start-finish straight.
Rins and Marquez are trading P2 back and forth behind Dovizioso, who is continuing to set a relatively leisurely pace out front.
It's a Moto3-like nine-rider pack at the sharp end of the race - Dovizioso, Marquez, Rins, Mir, Crutchlow, Petrucci, Vinales, Rossi and Morbidelli.
Rins tries to edge ahead of Dovizioso but runs wide, allowing the Italian to cut him off.
Quartararo update: The Frenchman has passed Syahrin and Aprilia wildcard Smith, and is currently running 21st.
Dovizioso uses Ducati's straightline-speed edge to move back ahead of Rins on the start-finish straight.
Alex Rins leads the Qatar GP, passing Dovizioso. Another 17 laps left to run, but he's looking good.
Rossi is up to eighth from 14th on the grid.
Rins divebombs Marquez for second.
Shout-out to Miguel Oliveira, who has just passed Pol Espargaro to run as the top KTM in P13. Brilliant.
Alex Rins sweeps past Crutchlow, and the other Suzuki follows through. They've got some serious pace.
The leading pack is not quite spreading out just yet, although Dovizioso is trying to put some daylight between himself and Marquez. Rins has overtaken Mir for P5, Vinales has passed Nakagami for P7.
Stopwatch
Quartararo, who is chasing after 22nd-placed Syahrin, has just fired in a 1m55.039s. It's the fastest lap of the race by far as the top riders are pacing themselves in a pack.
Information
Your current top 10 is Dovizioso, Marquez, Crutchlow, Mir, Rins, Petrucci, Nakagami, Vinales, Aleix Espargaro and Rossi.
Replays show Miller having to discard a part of his seat that has come lose. It's cost him badly - he's down to 11th, although has now regained pace.
Crash
Jack Miller has a major issue of some sort - a piece just fell off his bike!
Rins has now overtaken Vinales, so the pole-sitter is down to eighth place. He has Petrucci and Rossi behind him.
Marquez is working Miller for second, but cannot get the job done just yet. His new teammate Lorenzo is languishing in 19th.
Mier has picked off Vinales for sixth, and Rins is looking to follow suit.
Dovizioso leads Miller, Marquez, Crutchlow, Nakagami and Vinales. Rossi is up to 12th from 14th and is trying to pass Bagnaia.
Vinales had an average getaway but was forced wide by Marquez into Turn 1 - he's now down to sixth!
Green flag
Lights out and the 2019 MotoGP season is go! Dovizioso leads Miller into Turn 1.
Vinales has arrived to the grid - his starts were almost uniformly woeful last year, but he says he has worked to improve them in the off-season.
A huge blow for Quartararo, who will now be starting from pitlane and will have to fight his way through the pack. The Frenchman is clearly devastated.
Crash
The warm-up lap kicks off, and Quartararo cannot get going! He cannot start from the grid, so that fifth place in qualifying is for naught.
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Lots of milestones in the premier-class today - first race for Jorge Lorenzo with Honda, for Andrea Iannone with Aprilia and for Johann Zaroc with KTM.

And of course, there's four debutants. Qualifying star Quartararo starts an incredible fifth, with Mir 11th, Moto2 champ Bagnaia 13th and Oliveira 17th. An impressive bunch.
Information
Japanese rider Kaito Toba won his first race in Moto3 in the race earlier today, while Lorenzo Baldassarri beat the returning Tom Luthi in the intermediate-class opener.

By: Matt Beer

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