Luis Salom took over as the fastest rider in Moto3 with a late burst in second practice ahead of the Grand Prix of Qatar. The Spaniard was one of three riders to go underneath last year’s pole position on Thursday night with FP1 pacesetter Jonas Folger and Alex Rins joining him at the top of the leaderboard.
After his quick start earlier in the evening, Folger looked like completing a total domination of the opening day after a succession of fastest laps midway through the second session. The German broke into the 2:07s to move ahead of Rins but Salom would have the last say with a 2:07.341 in the last minute, three tenths under Folger’s Aspar Kalex. Rins was relegated to third with Alex Marquez following his teammate in fourth.
Niccolo Antonelli had an adventurous evening which started with a crash at turn ten but the GO&FUN Gresini FTR-Honda was in a fit enough state for the Italian to go fifth fastest in the dying seconds, edging out Efren Vazquez on the leading Mahindra. Brad Binder kept up his impressive start to the weekend with seventh place while Niklas Ajo finished eighth ahead of Maverick Vinales who kept his powder dry on Thursday.
Vinales’ teammate Ana Carrasco had a nightmare session when her Team Calvo KTM took an age to start up but the rookie finally made it out on track to finish 31st. The British riders enjoyed a much smoother time of it with Danny Webb and John McPhee eleventh and eighteenth.
 Moto3 Commercial Bank Grand Prix of Qatar: Combined Thursday Practice Times |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | Rider | Bike | Team | Time |
| 1 |  Luis Salom |
KTM | Red Bull KTM Ajo | 2:07.341 |
| 2 |  Jonas Folger |
Kalex KTM | Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3 | 2:07.633 |
| 3 | Alex Rins |
KTM | Estrella Galicia 0’0 | 2:07.968 |
| 4 | Alex Marquez |
KTM | Estrella Galicia 0’0 | 2:08.351 |
| 5 |  Niccolo Antonelli |
FTR Honda | GO&FUN Gresini Moto3 | 2:08.543 |
| 6 | Efren Vazquez |
Mahindra | Mahindra Racing | 2:08.546 |
| 7 |  Brad Binder |
Suter Honda | Ambrogio Racing | 2:08.580 |
| 8 |  Niklas Ajo |
KTM | Avant Tecno | 2:08.581 |
| 9 | Maverick Vinales |
KTM | Team Calvo | 2:08.602 |
| 10 |  Jakub Kornfeil |
Kalex KTM | Redox RW Racing GP | 2:08.611 |
| 11 |  Danny Webb |
Suter Honda | Ambrogio Racing | 2:08.766 |
| 12 |  Alan Techer |
TSR Honda | CIP Moto3 | 2:08.820 |
| 13 |  Miguel Oliveira |
Mahindra | Mahindra Racing | 2:08.977 |
| 14 |  Zulfahmi Khairuddin |
KTM | Red Bull KTM Ajo | 2:09.073 |
| 15 | Isaac Vinales |
FTR Honda | Bimbo-Ongetta-Centro Seta | 2:09.147 |
| 16 |  Jack Miller |
FTR Honda | Caretta Technology-RTG | 2:09.205 |
| 17 | Romano Fenati |
FTR Honda | San Carlo Team Italia | 2:09.482 |
| 18 | John McPhee |
FTR Honda | Caretta Technology-RTG | 2:09.566 |
| 19 | Alexis Masbou |
FTR Honda | Ongetta-Rivacold | 2:09.627 |
| 20 |  Jasper Iwema |
Kalex KTM | RW Racing GP | 2:09.824 |
| 21 |  Eric Granado |
Kalex KTM | Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3 | 2:10.024 |
| 22 | Arthur Sissis |
KTM | Red Bull KTM Ajo | 2:10.113 |
| 23 | Alessandro Tonucci |
Honda | Team La Fonte Tascaracing | 2:10.327 |
| 24 | Juan Francisco Guevara |
TSR Honda | CIP Moto3 | 2:10.651 |
| 25 | Philipp Oettl |
Kalex KTM | Paddock TT Motion Events | 2:10.657 |
| 26 | Toni Finsterbusch |
Kalex KTM | Kiefer Racing | 2:10.687 |
| 27 | Francesco Bagnaia |
FTR Honda | San Carlo Team Italia | 2:11.886 |
| 28 | Matteo Ferrari |
FTR Honda | Ongetta-Centro Seta | 2:11.951 |
| 29 | Florian Alt |
Kalex KTM | Kiefer Racing | 2:11.973 |
| 30 | Lorenzo Baldassarri |
FTR Honda | GO&FUN Gresini Moto3 | 2:12.425 |
| 31 | Ana Carrasco |
KTM | Team Calvo | 2:12.612 |
| 32 |  Hyuga Watanabe |
Honda | Team La Fonte Tascaracing | 2:13.447 |
