Qualifying was conducted on 25 August 2018, with Jorge Lorenzo on a Ducati taking the MotoGP pole with a time of 2:10.155.

[6] Shortly after the track was repaved and opened for testing, Cal Crutchlow said the new surface was perfect to Dorna officials.

Five months later, during the Formula One round at Silverstone in early July, Lewis Hamilton blasted the repaving as "wasted money," calling it the "worst job ever," saying the rough surface was worse than the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

[7] Shortly after the cancellation, MotoGP officials blamed the track's newly repaved surface as the problem.

The repaving was completed by Tarmac Ltd[8] with the direction of Italian circuit designer Jarno Zaffelli, from Dromo.