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Following two pre-season tests in February, the 21-round 2024 MotoGP campaign began this weekend in Qatar. Last year’s championship runner-up Jorge Martin topped the times by 0.047 seconds in a largely unrepresentative opening session from Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro. But it was Tech3 GasGas rookie Acosta who stole the show, going fastest in the session on several occasions and ending up third on just his 11th day on the KTM MotoGP bike since last November’s Valencia test. Run under sunnier conditions than either the sprint or grand prix will be staged, the 45-minute FP1 in Qatar was largely about brushing away the cobwebs for the 22-rider field. Factory KTM rider Jack Miller set the early pace with a 1m55.258s, before Honda’s Joan Mir edged ahead with a 1m54.221s. Acosta took to the top of the order for the first time with 38 minutes to go with a 1m53.992s to turn heads, before Marc Marquez on the Gresini Ducati took over with a 1m53.408s. Top...

We've made it to the other side of the All-Star break, and with roughly six weeks left in the regular season, we're going to start to see some teams shift their approach on how they want to play out the rest of the schedule. For some, that could mean putting in a little more effort in hopes of securing a play-in spot, while others could use the last 20-ish games of the season to give the keys to the younger guys and let them develop on the fly.  For those teams in that second category, that means we're about to get a heavy dose of rookies who maybe didn't have a ton of opportunity earlier in the season. For the few first-year players that make valuable contributions on winning teams that are in position to make the postseason, we'll also get to watch how those rookies perform under a new layer of pressure. The point is, there's a lot to look forward to with these rookies as we enter the str...