Qatar MotoGP season opener
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Not sure what's gone on up at Turn 14, lots of riders have run wide up there.
There's no spray being kicked up by bikes, everybody is still on slicks. Nowhere near wet enough for anything else.
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Losail is alive with the sound of MotoGP engines again, with riders heading back out of pitlane.
Teams are now heading back out to the grid with their gear. A welcome sight.
That's good news. Hopefully that means at 9:30pm we will be starting a 21-lap race, to get the 2017 MotoGP season going.
Stopwatch
The pitlane will open at 9:15pm, for a 15-minute restart procedure
The medical car is completing another lap. If you have just tuned in, the start has been delayed by a rain shower, that arrived three minutes before our scheduled start of the formation lap.
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Start procedure would be 15 minutes in duration, if we get the go ahead, with the race distance cut by a single lap back to 21.
Most of the track surface looks dry, from what we can see on the screens, as the medical car completes an evaluation lap.
Officials have headed out on track in the medical car to assess the conditions. They are due to report back to teams within the next 10 minutes.
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We have bikes and riders leaving the grid now. Not good news.
If we do get going - in wet or dry conditions - and we get three laps in the books, that will count as a result. The full race distance is 22 laps.
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It's still raining, but nowhere near as heavily as the rain that broke yesterday's schedule.
Riders are staying on the grid with their bikes and mechanics.
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We did get within three minutes of the start of the warm-up lap. So close...
Crash
The start has been delayed.
Incredibly, we did get some MotoGP running earlier in a dry, extended 30-minute warm-up.
Marc Marquez was quickest in that - despite a low-side shunt at Turn 14 - by just less than two tenths ahead of Andrea Dovizioso. Johann Zarco was third for Tech3 Yamaha.
Marc Marquez was quickest in that - despite a low-side shunt at Turn 14 - by just less than two tenths ahead of Andrea Dovizioso. Johann Zarco was third for Tech3 Yamaha.
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Crash
And it's raining again. Just what we all want...
Franco Morbidelli broke through for his maiden Moto2 win, with a commanding performance. Morbidelli started from pole for the first time and saw off an early challenge from Tom Luthi to win by 2.681s. Takaaki Nakagami was third, keeping Miguel Oliveira off the podium in KTM’s debut.
We have already had two races today... Joan Mir claimed his second Moto3 victory, holding off John McPhee on the final lap to deny McPhee a win to mark the debut of the British Talent Team. McPhee passed Mir at Turn 1 on the final lap, but the top 2016 rookie found a way back past three corners later, while polesitter Jorge Martin rounded out the podium.
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We have four rookies on the grid tonight, Tech3 Yamaha pair Zarco and Folger starting fourth and eighth, Suzuki's Alex Rins starting 18th and Aprilia's Sam Lowes in 21st.
At the back of the grid, we have newcomer KTM, starting its first full season in MotoGP, with Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith starting 22nd and 23rd.
Valentino Rossi will start 10th, he hasn't been happy with his Yamaha all winter, struggling with corner entry, two spots ahead of his former team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, who is 10 minutes away from his first start with Ducati.
Rookie Johann Zarco will start fourth, with the lead Ducati Andrea Dovizioso fifth and Scott Redding sixth, while Dani Pedrosa, Jonas Folger and Cal Crutchlow are on the third row.
The qualifying washout means the grid is set by combined practice times, with Yamaha recruit Maverick Vinales starting on pole, sharing the front row with the man who replaced him at Suzuki, Andrea Iannone, and world champion Marc Marquez.
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Riders backed that decision, and the drainage of the Losail circuit was deemed the most-critical factor, with some rivers running across the mostly-dry track surface, and pools of water in the run-off areas: 
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If you missed yesterday's running, you actually missed nothing. All of the sessions were cancelled after rain lashed the circuit during the day, and it failed to dry out properly: 
Qatar MotoGP qualifying cancelled due to Losail track being too wet
Qualifying for MotoGP's season opener in Qatar has been cancelled due to wet weather
After a long winter, it's nearly time to go racing, and the good news is that it looks like we will indeed be going racing. Riders are down on the grid on their bikes and we have a dry track. There is the threat of rain, though. Let's hope that stays away.
Green flag
Hello and welcome to Autosport and Motorsport.com's live coverage of the first round of the 2017 MotoGP season, in Qatar.
By: Mitchell Adam
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