After the opening round in Jerez Loris Capirossi led the MotoGP™ World Championship for the first time. The last time the opening round of the MotoGP™ World Championship officially started in Europe. The 2020 season with those Covid restrictions was a nightmare and brought back memories of my first year as a Grand Prix reporter in 1980. We did get to Austria a year later for the opening round although the first day of practice was cancelled because of snow. Then MotoGP™ spread its wings and took on the world with some incredible opening round venues. We soon got used to it with the Suzuka circuit staging the opening round for the next six years.

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