Fieten Olie Racing GP ready to shine under the floodlights at Qatar Grand Prix

This weekend the nineteenth and penultimate Grand Prix of the season will be held at the Lusail International Circuit in Qatar. After a positive end to the Malaysian Grand Prix, Fieten Olie Racing GP has travelled to the Middle East on the hunt for more world championship points with Barry Baltus and Zonta van den Goorbergh.

The 5.38-kilometre Lusail International Circuit has been on the MotoGP calendar since 2004 and since 2008 it has been run under artificial lights in the evening. Normally the season kicks off in Qatar but due to major construction work, this Grand Prix will now be held once in November.

The Lusail International Circuit is where Barry Baltus made his debut in the Moto2 class in 2021 and where Zonta van den Goorbergh rode his first Grand Prix in 2022. The weather conditions promise to be warm and dry making it the perfect opportunity for Fieten Olie Racing GP to put in a lot of kilometres and learn a lot once again.

Barry Baltus: “I like to ride at the the Lusail International Circuit. Last year it was the first race of the season and it went quite well. After a good weekend in Malaysia we aim to continue in this way. Once again we showed where we belong in this class so I cannot wait to go out on track on Friday.”

Zonta van den Goorbergh: “We are already preparing for the penultimate round of the season. It has gone by very quickly and we obviously want to end the year on a good note. The weekend in Malaysia didn’t quite go as we would have liked, hopefully the bad luck is behind us now and during the last two Grand Prix weekends things will go our way a bit more. Of course, I have ridden here before but that was almost two years ago, my first race in the Moto2 class. I don’t remember much about this circuit. What is different this year is that now we will also ride in the dark. That will be a new and I think also a fun experience for me. We will do our best to be in good shape from the start of the weekend and make steps forward every session. Hopefully we can bring home a nice result.”

Jarno Janssen – Fieten Olie Racing GP team manager: “We have now arrived in Qatar from Malaysia. It is the penultimate race of the season and the last of the overseas trip we started about two months ago. Looking back over the past seven Grand Prix weekends, it has been quite an intense period so we are actually quite happy to be back in Qatar, counting down to the final race next week. Of course, the race weekend in Qatar is always special because of the racing in the evening. That’s not something we need to be afraid of because in the past we have shown that we have been able to get good results here. We go into the weekend full of confidence and are looking forward to Friday for our first two practice sessions.”

As usual at the Lusail International Circuit there is a different schedule, in addition the time difference with Qatar and the Netherlands is two hours. The weekend for the Moto2 class starts with two practice sessions on Friday and the third practice on Saturday afternoon. Qualifying kicks off Saturday at 18:45 local time, 16:45 Central European time and the 20-lap race starts Sunday at 18:15 local time (16:15 CET).