MotoGP Qatar test: Iannone fastest for Suzuki on second day – MotoGP

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Suzuki rider Andrea Iannone went quickest on the second day of MotoGP’s final pre-season test in Qatar.

The Italian dethroned former team-mate Andrea Dovizioso from top spot by 0.041 seconds in the final half hour of the session, courtesy of a 1m54.586s lap.

The daytime heat early in the session is not expected to be representative of the conditions MotoGP teams experience at the first round of the season at the same venue later this month, and as a result there was a sluggish start to the day’s proceedings.

Ducati works rider Jorge Lorenzo was the only rider to attempt any meaningful running in the first two hours of the session, while the third hour was then largely chalked off when rain arrived.

Track action eventually picked up, with Lorenzo’s team-mate Dovizioso assuming a narrow lead over Honda pair Marc Marquez and Cal Crutchlow, before a red flag suspended running 11 minutes before the halfway point.

The culprits were three privateer riders – Pramac Ducati pair Danilo Petrucci and Jack Miller, as well as Tech3 Yamaha’s Johann Zarco – all going down at Turn 1.

Iannone took over out front once the session resumed, before Dovizioso reclaimed the spot with a 1m54.734s effort – the first sub-1m55s lap of the test.

An hour after that, the Ducati man improved to a 1m54.627s, which remained the time to beat until Iannone’s late effort.

Reigning champion Marquez crashed with an hour left while running a new Honda aero fairing, but soon rejoined to post a lap time that proved enough for third place.

Zarco was the top Yamaha rider in fourth, ahead of Iannone’s Suzuki team-mate Alex Rins and LCR rider Crutchlow.

The top six had all improved on Maverick Vinales’ opening-day benchmark, and the Yamaha rider did so to – albeit by a mere 0.002s, which left him only seventh in the order.

Pramac duo Petrucci and Miller were eighth and ninth, while Honda’s Dani Pedrosa completed the top 10 just ahead of Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi.

Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami and Lorenzo were the only other riders to lap within a second of Iannone.

Bradley Smith was the leading KTM runner in 16th, as his regular team-mate Pol Espargaro, continuing his recovery from injury, sat out the running in favour of test rider Mika Kallio.

Saturday’s session will mark the end of MotoGP pre-season testing, and will conclude with a compulsory half-hour wet test, aimed at studying the impact that spray kicked up by the bikes could have on visibility around the Losail International Circuit at night.

Friday test times

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Andrea Iannone Suzuki Suzuki 1m54.586s 45
2 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Ducati 1m54.627s 0.041s 41
3 Marc Marquez Honda Honda 1m54.753s 0.167s 59
4 Johann Zarco Tech3 Yamaha Yamaha 1m54.874s 0.288s 49
5 Alex Rins Suzuki Suzuki 1m54.967s 0.381s 41
6 Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda Honda 1m54.992s 0.406s 51
7 Maverick Vinales Yamaha Yamaha 1m55.051s 0.465s 52
8 Danilo Petrucci Pramac Ducati Ducati 1m55.188s 0.602s 30
9 Jack Miller Pramac Ducati Ducati 1m55.236s 0.650s 47
10 Dani Pedrosa Honda Honda 1m55.282s 0.696s 35
11 Valentino Rossi Yamaha Yamaha 1m55.316s 0.730s 45
12 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia Aprilia 1m55.460s 0.874s 47
13 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda Honda 1m55.539s 0.953s 61
14 Jorge Lorenzo Ducati Ducati 1m55.562s 0.976s 53
15 Scott Redding Aprilia Aprilia 1m55.708s 1.122s 57
16 Bradley Smith KTM KTM 1m55.798s 1.212s 49
17 Tito Rabat Avintia Ducati Ducati 1m55.875s 1.289s 61
18 Karel Abraham Aspar Ducati Ducati 1m55.876s 1.290s 37
19 Franco Morbidelli MVDS Honda Honda 1m56.074s 1.488s 55
20 Alvaro Bautista Aspar Ducati Ducati 1m56.104s 1.518s 70
21 Hafizh Syahrin Tech3 Yamaha Yamaha 1m56.263s 1.677s 46
22 Thomas Luthi MVDS Honda Honda 1m56.295s 1.709s 38
23 Xavier Simeon Avintia Ducati Ducati 1m56.795s 2.209s 46
24 Mika Kallio KTM KTM 1m57.218s 2.632s 56



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