Zarco, Rossi, Marquez back wet night race

Johann Zarco, fastest in the dry at the final pre-season test, is sure that MotoGP will be able to race under floodlights in the rain, should such conditions occur at the season-opening Qatar race.

Riding in the rain at night has previously been prohibited due to concerns about visibility, due to the floodlights illuminating the spray.

But with desert rain again disrupting last year's schedule a wet test was organised for the final hour of Saturday's running, using water trucks to soak the circuit, to decide if it would be safe to go ahead in such conditions.

The official verdict is yet to be given, but Zarco was clear.

"About the rain, I think all the paddock now is ready to race," said the Monster Yamaha Tech3 rider. "The question mark was the vision. How we can see with the light in the wet, but this went quite well and it's not giving us problems.

"Then about the grip, doing some work with the bike we can find the confidence to go fast.

"And even if it's raining, with the warm temperature and warm track we will never have a full wet track. I think it's going to get dry quickly.

"So the rain test is really in case of emergency on Sunday. So we are ready [if it happens]."

Second fastest Valentino Rossi, the most experienced rider on the grid, gave a similar verdict.

"It's okay, I think we can do," said rhe Movistar Yamaha rider. "I was riding alone so I don’t know in a group.

"But my feeling is you can ride without big problems in the night and it looks like the grip of the track is normal with the water. So I think we can do."

Reigning four-time world champion Marc Marquez said: "With the reflection of the light it’s a bit more difficult than usual to see the kerbs and the white line, and the track is a bit slippery, but for me it should be possible to do the race if it rains.”

However Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa sounded a note of caution: "I think that in case of rain for the race, we’ll have to speak and decide all together" while LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow cited grip rather than vision issues.

"I thought the vision was ok, but the track was really slippery and I’m sure we’ll discuss this in the safety commission for the first race in Qatar.”

Loris Capirossi, Dorna's representative in race direction, told the official MotoGP website: "It's complicated because every rider has a different opinion. Some say it's okay, no big problem, but some others think it might be different when we have proper rain instead of an artificially wet track.

"Now we have to think about what to do for the race weekend... It would be best if we can test again with proper rain during the practice."

Capirossi had previously tried riding on the wet Losail track behind a car at night, to simulate the spray, and declared dazzle from the floodlights not to be an issue.

But Saturday's test was the first time MotoGP bikes and riders had tried such conditions for themselves. 

Last year's Qatar MotoGP schedule was severely disrupted by rain, which also fell in small amounts during this week's test. The 2009 event was postponed until Monday night due to a rain storm in the desert.

“[The test] follows all the years where rain has impacted the [Qatar] race - especially last year,” Race Director Mike Webb told Crash.net at the previous Thailand test. “We had to find out if it’s viable to have bikes on a wet track under the lights or not. We have to know once and for all.

"It’s a test only of the visibility available. It’s not about setting up, doing a lap time, or anything like that. It’s simply go out, ride around in a group and see what the visibility is like and if they can see. That’s the number one question.

“If the answer is ‘no’ then we’ll never run it in the rain. If the answer is ‘yes’ we’ll decide on what our plan is if it rains during the grand prix."

Whatever the final verdict, an earlier race start time of 7pm will be used for the 2018 Qatar MotoGP event on March 18, providing more flexibility in the case of any delays.