Qatar MotoGP testing: Quartararo tops second day as Marquez crashes – MotoGP

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Fabio Quartararo put Yamaha on top of the timesheets on day two of the Qatar MotoGP pre-season test, as the injured Marc Marquez destroyed his Honda in a heavy crash.

Petronas SRT rider Quartararo, who topped the Sepang test outright after leading all three days in Malaysia, was an early pacesetter on Sunday at Losail with a 1m54.974s lap.

This stood as the benchmark for some time, before his SRT team-mate Franco Morbidelli, on the ‘A-spec’ M1, took over with a 1m54.954s with just under four hours to go.

Over the next 45 minutes, Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci – continuing work on the marque’s adjustable ride height device – and Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales took turns topping the timesheets.

Vinales, refining the M1’s set-up this test, fired in a 1m54.658s with just over three hours to go, with Suzuki’s Joan Mir deposing him around about 30 minutes later with a 1m54.612s.

Mir’s day would be cut short by a late tumble at Turn 6 when he locked the front wheel, and he ended up seventh in the standings after a number of improvements in the closing stages.

Vinales would return to the top of the timesheets with around an hour and 45 minutes of the session to go, though Quartararo soon set a new benchmark of 1m54.038s.

This would go unopposed until the end of the session, with Saturday pacesetter Alex Rins on the Suzuki his closest challenger, 0.162 seconds adrift.

Vinales rounded out the top three ahead of Morbidelli, while Francesco Bagnaia was top Ducati runner in fifth as he continues to adapt from the GP18 he rode last year to the GP20 in Pramac colours.

Johann Zarco made a considerable step forward in his adaptation process to Avintia’s GP19, as he ended the session half a second off the pace in sixth ahead of Mir and the works Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso.

Valentino Rossi – who said on Saturday that he still needs to find “two or three tenths” to fight for victory on the new Yamaha – was ninth, with LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami completing the top 10 on the year-old Honda.

Aleix Espargaro was top Aprilia in 11th, though suffered a crash at Turn 4 during the session. He headed Petrucci, KTM’s Pol Espargaro and Marquez.

The Honda rider is still recovering from the shoulder surgery he had in the winter, with a pinched nerve from that operation causing him the most problems.

His Qatar test failed to improve on Sunday, as a big crash at Turn 9 in the early evening destroyed his bike – with Honda reporting via social media that he walked away uninjured.

LCR’s Cal Crutchlow, who was 2.1s off the pace in 21st, also had a crash on Sunday at Turn 2.

Sunday times

Pos Driver Team Car Gap Laps
1 Fabio Quartararo Petronas Yamaha Yamaha 1m54.038s 65
2 Alex Rins Suzuki Suzuki 0.162s 53
3 Maverick Vinales Yamaha Yamaha 0.226s 68
4 Franco Morbidelli Petronas Yamaha Yamaha 0.443s 70
5 Francesco Bagnaia Pramac Ducati Ducati 0.482s 52
6 Johann Zarco Avintia Ducati Ducati 0.527s 56
7 Joan Mir Suzuki Suzuki 0.574s 52
8 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Ducati 0.624s 60
9 Valentino Rossi Yamaha Yamaha 0.702s 52
10 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda Honda 0.721s 43
11 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia Aprilia 0.724s 33
12 Danilo Petrucci Ducati Ducati 0.814s 49
13 Pol Espargaro KTM KTM 0.852s 54
14 Marc Marquez Honda Honda 1.055s 46
15 Jack Miller Pramac Ducati Ducati 1.156s 42
16 Tito Rabat Avintia Ducati Ducati 1.314s 54
17 Miguel Oliveira KTM KTM 1.562s 53
18 Iker Lecuona KTM KTM 1.606s 53
19 Alex Marquez Honda Honda 1.687s 48
20 Brad Binder KTM KTM 1.892s 57
21 Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda Honda 2.140s 27
22 Bradley Smith Aprilia Aprilia 2.369s 52



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