Chief among those was the duel between arch-rivals Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa – two individuals that once needed the King of Spain to make them shake hands – that could run the length of the season and an interesting little spat with Ben Spies and a clearly-struggling Valentino Rossi.

The American, in his first ride on the factory Yamaha M1, need guile to pass the seven times world champion in his maiden Ducati outing. Rossi almost lost the front end at one stage trying to prevent the former WSB Champion seizing 6th place after recovering from a mediocre launch at the lights. ‘I didn’t get a lucky break on the start,’ he said. ‘I struggled to get by Valentino for a while, he was riding really well and he’s not an easy guy to get around!’

Rossi acknowledges that the Ducati (the fifth motorcycle he is trying to take to a MotoGP crown) still needs modifications to meet anything like the speed of the works Hondas and at Losail there was to be nothing like the dream debut he tasted with Yamaha at Welkom in South Africa in 2004. ‘For sure we’re not here to get seventh-place finishes, but there are also positive things from this race, starting with the times, because we were lapping pretty quickly,’ Rossi declared, and then alluded to his weak shoulder, still troubling him for almost a year. ‘I wouldn’t have beaten them though, because at the end of the race, I’m no longer able to ride like I have to. It’s really a matter of me not being physically right.’ (photo courtesy of Yamaha)