Unsurprisingly, the genius that is Valentino Rossi summed up the mood in the paddock on Sunday night perfectly when he said (and I am toning this down significantly): "It's like being alone with a girl only for your mother to walk in at the crucial moment!"
Thankfully the rain abated in time for Monday night's restart and we were all able to resume position and finally get it on as Australia's Casey Stoner eased to victory, with 2008 champion Rossi finishing second and Jorge Lorenzo third.
There had already been a sense of anticlimax on Thursday when Valentino and Sete Gibernau publicly made their peace over a bitter row that started, coincidentally, at Qatar back in 2004.
It was the first ever race to be run here and Vale was forced to start from the back of the grid after a complaint from Sete's Honda team that Jeremy Burgess and his crew had swept his grid position clean.
Valentino crashed out trying to recover positions in the race and, when Sete took victory, Rossi swore he would make sure the Spaniard would never win another race - a promise he stuck to in their most public falling out at Jerez in 2005, when he punted him off the track on the final corner.Sete announced his retirement at the end of 2006, marrying a supermodel and disappearing into the ether before divorcing and returning to MotoGP as a test rider last year. When he announced he was coming back full-time for 2009, we were all looking forward to some unfinished business getting sorted out.
"Honestly, I'm really happy to have Sete back," said Vale, disappointing the hacks but without doubt echoing the sentiments of the entire paddock.
"Some of my hardest battles have been with him and I wish him luck. Hopefully he can be at the front again - not in front of me, but at the front - and I think we can be friends again."
"We've all matured since then and I've come back with my hand outstretched to Valentino and to everybody else," said Sete.
"I'm proud of the way I've been welcomed back and proud that Valentino says he had to ride on the limit against me in the past. I think he'll be champion again this year."
The pair had actually already kissed and made up - metaphorically speaking of course - in an impromptu phone conversation last summer when Sete was visiting his friend Fonsi Nieto, the former 250cc and WSBK rider, in Ibiza.
The Spanish pair were having dinner when Fonsi received a call from Valentino, who owns a house on the island.
Fonsi cheekily passed the phone to Sete without telling either who was on the other end. "It was a bit confusing and he caught us both out," recalls Sete. "We talked for a little while and we've been in touch a couple of times since."
Friendly rivalry is an essential part of racing and while it may have overstepped the mark at Tech 3 Yamaha, where Colin Edwards and James Toseland are still not talking, there is very much the opposite vibe going on a few doors down the pit-lane at Ducati.
Nicky Hayden suffered a 130mph high-side during qualifying on Saturday and when Casey Stoner returned to parc fermé at the end of the session to be congratulated and interviewed on his pole position, his first question to his mechanic before he'd even taken his helmet off was about the welfare of his team-mate.
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