Jorge Lorenzo re-established his superiority over the MotoGP field by setting the pace on the first evening of the final pre-season test at Losail. The world champion endured a difficult three days at Phillip Island two weeks ago but returned to form in Qatar, leading Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi by four tenths of a second.
As day turned to dusk, the quickest time switched between three different riders with three different manufacturers. Although Suzuki’s Vinales and Ducati’s Andrea Iannone each took turns at the top, Lorenzo would ultimately take the honours on day one with a 1:55.452. Vinales would end the night in second, backing up his sensational form from Phillip Island.
Iannone was pushed back to fourth by Rossi although the Movistar Yamaha rider blotted his copybook with a slow speed crash at turn ten early on. Rossi recovered to clock a 1:55.894, four hundredths shy of Vinales and the final rider to drop under the 1m56 barrier.
Behind Iannone came another trio of Ducatis, each of different spec, with Scott Redding taking fifth for Pramac aboard his GP15 ahead of the GP14.2 of Avintia’s Hector Barbera. Andrea Dovizioso took the 2016 machine to seventh ahead of British pair Cal Crutchlow and Bradley Smith while Marc Marquez could only manage tenth on the leading Repsol Honda.
The day was also highlighted by the public debut of the new Aprilia RS-GP but Stefan Bradl and Alvaro Bautista failed to light up the timing screens on Wednesday, finishing over two seconds adrift in 19th and 22nd respectively.
MotoGP Official Test – Losail (Day One Result)
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