Jorge Lorenzo has called for next week's 2019 season-opening Qatar Grand Prix to be run at least “half an hour” earlier than planned to avoid “dangerous” low-grip track conditions.
The Qatar race has been a night event since the 2008 season, originally starting at 23:00 local time, though has gradually been brought forward owing to treacherous track conditions caused by dew forming on circuit after 21:00 local time.
Since last year, the MotoGP race has been run at 19:00 in a bid to maximise the best of the track conditions, but also to allow a greater window to still run the grand prix in the event of a rain delay – a change made in the wake of the cancelled qualifying of a year earlier.
Honda's Lorenzo was one of many to suffer a fall on the final day of pre-season testing at Losail, and says he will “speak quite seriously” with Dorna about having the start time for next week's race altered on safety grounds.
“Well, I got a big crash at the end of the night because the temperature dropped a lot, was a lot of humidity, a lot of coldness and a lot of riders start crashing,” he said.
“So that's why I would like to speak quite seriously with [MotoGP Sporting Director] Carlos Ezpeleta and the ones who decide the schedule of the race, because if we can start it earlier [it] would be much better for the safety of the riders.
“Hopefully we can modify this – one hour, half an hour [earlier] – as much as possible, because [if] we are unlucky to be on the race day on a very humid night, it will be dangerous.”
Lorenzo ended his only test in 2019 fifth fastest after making a “very big step forward” in setting up his Honda, and believes he could even "better" had he not been forced to miss the Sepang test through injury.
“This is just my third day [on the bike] as an official [Honda] rider,” he added.
“In Valencia and Jerez [testing in November], I was also fifth. This was also long time ago, so we didn't have enough time to be very, very ready for the first race.
“But in the last day here we make a very big step forward, so that means if I am fifth [now], and I can ride a bit better and I can improve some small details, I can be even better.
“So I leave this track very satisfied and looking forward to the race.”
