Maverick Vinales’ sensation pre-season continued as Yamaha locked out the top three places on the second evening at Losail. The Spaniard led a factory 1-2 ahead of team-mate Valentino Rossi while Tech 3 rookie Jonas Folger completed the top three. The day’s headlines were also dominated by Ducati who debuted a radical new aerodynamic fairing.
Vinales, who has now topped the timesheets at all four official winter tests, found three quarters of a second on his Friday best to beat Andrea Dovizioso’s overall benchmark. The Italian was attracting plenty of attention with the aerodynamic development on his Desmosedici GP, already being dubbed the ‘Hammerhead’ fairing, although it didn’t help him climb any higher than thirteenth on the night.
Light drizzle midway through the session caused a couple of light crashes with Rossi losing control of his YZR-M1 in a low side. ‘The Doctor’ soon returned to the track and a 1:54.732 on his final run of the night saw him climb to second, the most competitive the nine-time champion has looked at any stage this winter.
Folger’s third place was arguably the performance of the day with the German the only other rider to clock a 1:54s lap. The youngster edged out Cal Crutchlow who retained his status as the top Honda rider while Aleix Espargaro finished a superb fifth for Aprilia.
World champion Marc Marquez enjoyed a smoother second day after crashing twice on Friday but the no.93 still languished back in sixth, just ahead of Alvaro Bautista. Jorge Lorenzo was the pacesetter early in the afternoon before sunset but eventually tumbled to eighth after a crash while Scott Redding and Johann Zarco completed the top ten.
2017 MotoGP Official Pre-Season Test: Losail (Day Two)
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