Bradley Smith cra-shed out on his MotoGP debut in Qatar last night.

The Oxfordshire rider, on his Monster Tech 3 Yamaha, came off on lap five when in 11th place.

Defending MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo produced a dominant performance to win the opening race of the season under the floodlights.

The Spaniard, 25, led from pole position and opened up a comfortable gap to take his 24th MotoGP victory.

Behind him, a four-man battle for the podium ended with Valentino Rossi taking second on his return for Yamaha.

Debutant Marc Marquez was edged into third, with team-mate Dani Pedrosa fourth and Smith’s teammate, Cal Crutchlow, fifth.

Lorenzo rode a flawless race to win by nearly six seconds, but it was the performance of seven-time champion Rossi in second which will dominate the headlines. A

fter two wretched years in the Ducati team, the 34-year-old was back to his duelling best to come from way back in fifth with ten laps to go to take his place on the podium.

An early mistake, with Rossi lunging wildly up the inside of Spain’s Pedrosa and ending up off the track, left the Italian in seventh place, but he soon made his way back through to fifth.

A burst of speed then saw him reel in and then overtake Crutchlow and Pedrosa before the veteran came out on top of an engaging fight with 20-year-old Marquez – the Spaniard who has been heralded as one of the most exciting riders to come to MotoGP in years – to take second.

Crutchlow had qualified in second place and was in the hunt for a podium finish until he ran wide defending from Rossi.

Result (top ten): 1 J Lorenzo (Yamaha), 42mins 39.802 secs, 2 V Rossi (Ya-maha), 42.45.792, 3 M Marquez (Honda) 42.46.003, 4 D Pedrosa (Honda) 42.49.275, 5 C Crutchlow (Yamaha) 42.58.566, 6 A Bautista (Honda) 43.01.950, 7 A Dovizioso (Ducati) 43.04.157, 8 N Hayden (Ducati) 43.04.722, 9 A Iannone (Ducati) 43.16.926, 10 B Spies (Ducati) 43.24.710.