Pramac will take part in the Qatar Grand Prix after briefly weighing whether to travel to Lusail. Yamaha has announced that its MotoGP teams will not be sent to the event, but Pramac’s Moto2 operation was allowed to make its own decision and chose to race. The championship situation made the choice especially important: Izan Guevara is only 3.5 points behind leader Manuel Gonzalez, with three rounds remaining. As Guevara puts it, every point now matters in the title fight.

The Spaniard arrives in Qatar with four podiums from the last six races, although the circuit has never previously delivered a podium finish for him. Guevara says he likes the track and sees this weekend as an opportunity to change that record. He also points to his positive result in Malaysia, where he continued fighting until the end of the race. Lusail’s many fast corners will demand an adjustment to his riding style, with the rider expecting that adaptation to be important for extracting the best from the circuit.

Pramac team manager Alex De Angelis regards the team’s prospects as substantially better than they were at last year’s Qatar event, when both the squad and Guevara were uncompetitive. He says Guevara made consistent progress from the middle of last season, reaching a high point with his victory in Valencia. De Angelis also argues that the team is now performing strongly at every circuit and has shown speed in different conditions and from different grid positions. That gives Pramac reason to expect a competitive weekend, although its immediate objective is more practical: score as many points as possible, avoid giving anything away and work through every detail to provide Guevara with the strongest possible package.