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)
Pos
Rider
Constructor
Team
Best Time
1
99. Jorge LORENZO
Yamaha
Movistar Yamaha MotoGP
1:55.452
2
25. Maverick VINALES
Suzuki
Team SUZUKI ECSTAR
1:55.880
3
46. Valentino ROSSI
Yamaha
Movistar Yamaha MotoGP
1:55.894
4
29. Andrea IANNONE
Ducati
Ducati Team
1:56.119
5
45. Scott REDDING
Ducati
Octo Pramac Yakhnich
1:56.213
6
8. Hector BARBERA
Ducati
Avintia Racing
1:56.320
7
4. Andrea DOVIZIOSO
Ducati
Ducati Team
1:56.388
8
35. Cal CRUTCHLOW
Honda
LCR Honda
1:56.510
9
38. Bradley SMITH
Yamaha
Monster Yamaha Tech 3
1:56.517
10
93. Marc MARQUEZ
Honda
Repsol Honda Team
1:56.523
11
41. Aleix ESPARGARO
Suzuki
Team SUZUKI ECSTAR
1:56.552
12
44. Pol ESPARGARO
Yamaha
Monster Yamaha Tech 3
1:56.747
13
26. Dani PEDROSA
Honda
Repsol Honda Team
1:56.910
14
68. Yonny HERNANDEZ
Ducati
Aspar MotoGP Team
1:57.021
15
76. Loris BAZ
Ducati
Avintia Racing
1:57.121
16
43. Jack MILLER
Honda
Marc VDS Racing Team
1:57.850
17
51. Michele PIRRO
Ducati
Octo Pramac Yakhnich
1:57.891
18
53. Tito RABAT
Honda
EG 0,0 Marc VDS
1:58.016
19
6. Stefan BRADL
Aprilia
Aprilia Racing Team Gresini
1:58.066
20
50. Eugene LAVERTY
Ducati
Aspar MotoGP Team
1:58.269
21
7. Hiroshi AOYAMA
Honda
HRC Test Team
1:58.744
22
19. Alvaro BAUTISTA
Aprilia
Aprilia Racing Team Gresini
1:58.753
23
12. Takuya TSUDA
Suzuki
Suzuki Test Team
2:00.578
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