Qatar MotoGP test: Maverick Vinales fastest for Yamaha – MotoGP

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Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales kicked off the final pre-season MotoGP test in Qatar on top as Marc Marquez suffered his first crash since his shoulder operation.

Reigning champion Marquez’s fall occurred at the final corner, but his crash was a relatively small one and he was able to return to the pits and ride again later on.

The Honda man led for a short while in the early stages of the six-hour test before dropping down the order. He was only 10th in the end.

Ducati factory duo Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci spent the most time at the head of the order, the pair only briefly demoted by Vinales and Suzuki’s Alex Rins before the final hour of the test began.

Vinales then beat Dovizioso’s best time by nearly half a second with an hour left on the clock, with Rins also following suit to move into second.

That settled the order at the front of the field, Vinales’ 1m55.051s lap – 0.108 seconds ahead of Rins – remaining the benchmark as the test concluded.

A further three tenths back, Dovizioso and Petrucci settled for third and fourth, separated by half a tenth, with Valentino Rossi completing the top five on the second Yamaha.

Avintia Ducati’s Tito Rabat continued his strong pre-season form with a sixth place and Fabio Quartararo also impressed in seventh as top rookie aboard the Petronas SRT Yamaha.

Takaaki Nakagami led an otherwise underwhelming day for Honda in eighth as Marquez, Cal Crutchlow and Jorge Lorenzo, all still recovering from injuries, were 10th, 18th and 21st respectively.

Having missed the previous Sepang test due to a training accident, Lorenzo was 2.039s off the pace on his first test outing of the year, and nine tenths slower than team-mate Marquez.

Pol Espargaro led KTM’s efforts in ninth, while team-mate Johann Zarco was a lowly 16th.

Aprilia duo Aleix Espargaro and Andrea Iannone both suffered crashes before taking 12th and 13th respectively, with Franco Morbidelli (Petronas SRT Yamaha) in 14th also having a fall.

Saturday test times

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Maverick Vinales Yamaha Yamaha 1m55.051s 50
2 Alex Rins Suzuki Suzuki 1m55.159s 0.108s 48
3 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Ducati 1m55.550s 0.499s 29
4 Danilo Petrucci Ducati Ducati 1m55.594s 0.543s 37
5 Valentino Rossi Yamaha Yamaha 1m55.604s 0.553s 47
6 Tito Rabat Avintia Ducati Ducati 1m55.694s 0.643s 44
7 Fabio Quartararo Petronas Yamaha Yamaha 1m55.772s 0.721s 49
8 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda Honda 1m55.943s 0.892s 45
9 Pol Espargaro KTM KTM 1m56.040s 0.989s 47
10 Marc Marquez Honda Honda 1m56.167s 1.116s 34
11 Joan Mir Suzuki Suzuki 1m56.264s 1.213s 52
12 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia Aprilia 1m56.358s 1.307s 34
13 Andrea Iannone Aprilia Aprilia 1m56.447s 1.396s 30
14 Franco Morbidelli Petronas Yamaha Yamaha 1m56.511s 1.460s 47
15 Francesco Bagnaia Pramac Ducati Ducati 1m56.738s 1.687s 45
16 Johann Zarco KTM KTM 1m56.770s 1.719s 53
17 Miguel Oliveira Tech3 KTM KTM 1m56.891s 1.840s 42
18 Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda Honda 1m56.921s 1.870s 43
19 Jack Miller Pramac Ducati Ducati 1m56.932s 1.881s 46
20 Karel Abraham Avintia Ducati Ducati 1m57.053s 2.002s 39
21 Jorge Lorenzo Honda Honda 1m57.090s 2.039s 38
22 Bradley Smith Aprilia Aprilia 1m57.137s 2.086s 48
23 Hafizh Syahrin Tech3 KTM KTM 1m57.459s 2.408s 44



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