Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso has ended the opening day’s MotoGP action in Qatar at the top of the combined timesheets which saw no Hondas or Yamahas in the top five.
The Italian scorched to a 1’54.361 using the soft rear Michelin in the usual session end time attack and it was enough to secure top spot ahead of Pramac Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci by just 0.006s while Suzuki’s Alex Rins, who was fastest with ten minutes to go, put in a 1’54.458 with his last lap to claim third.
Jorge Lorenzo claimed fourth with his penultimate lap of 1’54.831 while Andrea Iannone, on the second Suzuki, nicked fourth with seconds left, lapping at 1’54.841. Petrucci and Rins used a soft front to set their times while the works Ducatis opted for a medium.
In an incredibly tight session, the top 14 riders are covered by less than a second and Jack Miller is at the bottom of that pile but the proximity of his Pramac Ducati to the likes of Maverick Vinales in 11th and Johann Zarco in tenth - and the last of the automatic Q2 men should it be too hot tomorrow to improve on today's times - is a cry from his efforts on the RC213V.
Indeed, Miller is only half a second slower than Lorenzo while the three Hondas in sixth, seventh and eighth are split by 0.003s. Marc Marquez set a 1'54.840, Dani Pedrosa a 1'54.841 and Cal Crutchlow a 1'54.842, while Valentino Rossi in seventh is a further 0.001s behind with a 1'54.843.
Zarco, on the Monster Yamaha, is only another 0.059s further back and there is another three-tenths before you get to Vinales' name. Aleix Espargaro's Aprilia was sitting pretty in fourth place with five minutes left to run and he got bumped to 12th with a 0.041s deficit to Vinales. Tito Rabat ended just ahead of Miller with leading rookie Taka Nakagami's LCR Honda just 1.3s off the pace in 15th.
Scott Redding ended the day in 16th and half a second behind his Aprilia team leader with Bradley Smith in 20th.
