Rossi and Stoner criticised Lusail's 2009 night race postponement

The MotoGP Qatar Grand Prix at Lusail was postponed from Sunday to Monday in 2009 after a heavy downpour. The race had been scheduled to start at 11 p.m., and the water on the track made conditions hard to judge under the floodlights.

Valentino Rossi said races should be held during the day and criticised the emphasis on show over sport. Casey Stoner also questioned the decision, pointing to the lack of any guarantee against rain and the safety risk posed by sand washed onto the track.

The circuit, which opened in 2004 as the first major international motorsport venue to race there, had been built in a desert region where rain was seen as unlikely, so no drainage system suited to such intense rainfall had been installed.