Explosive start to season as Marquez sets pace in Qatar

Doha: Reigning world champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) yesterday produced the day’s fastest time in the second free practice session on the opening day of the new MotoGP World Championship.

Marquez, who won nine Grands Prix last season, last night set a blistering pace in the second Free Practice session at the VisitQatar Grand Prix with a time of 1:53.380. 

The Spaniard’s time was three tenths under the previous lap record as the Spaniard betters second place Maverick Viñales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) by 0.474, with Jack Miller (Alma Pramac Racing) completing the top three.  

After the start was slightly delayed due to track conditions, it was a manic second session for the premier class as the time attacks came in, with the later time giving the riders the best chance to book an automatic Q2 place for today’s qualifying. 

It was Marquez who set the fastest lap of the weekend with just over five minutes of FP2 gone, setting the tone for the rest of the session. 

Rookie Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) was the first to put the soft-soft tyre combination in and the 2017 Moto3 World Champion set the timing screens alight to go over three-tenths clear of the field with just under 15 minutes to go.

Miller then took over at the top a couple of minutes later on board his GP19, before Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha SRT) produced the goods to fire himself to the summit – this coming after he had crashed at Turn 1 earlier in FP2, with his bike catching fire in the gravel. 

Andrea Dovizioso (Mission Winnow Ducati) then took over but shadowing Viñales, a prowling Marquez would have the last laugh to go 0.474 clear of the Yamaha rider to set a new outright lap record around the Losail International Circuit.

Viñales and Miller kept P2 and P3, with Danilo Petrucci (Mission Winnow Ducati) 0.673 back in fourth. Rookie Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) had a great session, the Frenchman rounding out the top five to easily get himself a provisional Q2 place, with Dovi eventually settling for P6. 

Morbidelli ended the day in seventh, with Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) jumping into the top 10 on his final lap with a 1:54.320. Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) and Mir sit P9 and P10 respectively after strong sessions.

There are some big names missing from the top 10, and as things stand will have to go through Q1 in order to fight for pole. Jorge Lorenzo (Repsol Honda Team) ends P11 after finishing P2 in FP1, Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda Castrol) sits just behind teammate Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu) in P13 and P12 respectively, with FP1 leader Valentino Rossi’s (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) 1:55.048 only good enough for P16 at the end of the day - ‘The Doctor’ the only rider to not improve his time in FP2.

Earlier Italian Lorenzo Baldassarri (Flexbox HP 40) topped the field in an exceptionally tight Moto2 field at the close of day one at the VisitQatar Grand Prix, with three quarters of a second separating the top fifteen.

The Official Qualifying will take place under lights at LIC today.