Maverick Vinales and reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez scrapped it out for top honours in the opening free practice session in Qatar with the Movistar Yamaha man going under last year’s pole time with a 1’54.316 - more than half a second faster than the HRC rider could muster.
Vinales set his time with his penultimate lap but had been chased hard in the dying minutes by Marquez, who ended what was a mini qualifying session with a 1’54.912 to lead his own Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa by three-tenths as the little Spaniard hopped into third place on a 1’55.210 just before the chequered flag.
“I’m feeling good. During the last part of the test I felt confident and today I felt the same. I went out on the same bike and the track was looking good, so I just pushed and tried to do my best. The bike is working great and the team is doing a good job all the time and we improved the electronics a bit, so that helped to set today’s lap time,” said Vinales.
“At the end, I put in a new tyre and set that 1’54.316s. The important thing is that tomorrow we’ll work really hard on the race pace. Today we were feeling good on the medium tyres and I was able to set nice lap times, but we decided to put in the new tyre anyway, so in case it rains tomorrow we’ll be in Q2.
“The track was little bit dirty and windy on the first couple of laps, but then the wind calmed down so we had more power on the bike and that helped a lot. The first laps were quite difficult with the wind, the bike was wheelying and there wasn’t a lot of grip on the circuit, but suddenly the track improved a lot and when I put in the new tyre I just had to push and go for it.”
Rookie Jonas Folger who, like the rest of the pack, opted for soft Michelins all round, showed his form in testing was no fluke, jumping into fourth place on the Monster Yamaha with his last flying lap and he deposed Ducati’s Jorge Lorenzo. The former champion was pushed down to fifth place on a 1’55.607 after going top with four minutes left.
Britain’s Cal Crutchlow had a disastrous start to the session as his RC213V engine let go after nine minutes but after a scooter ride back to the pits, the LCR Honda man was back out and pestered the top five for the final 30 minutes. Crutchlow had been as high as fifth but slipped back to seventh on a 1’55.639 when Loris Baz nipped ahead with his last lap.
Johann Zarco, another rookie on the second Monster Yamaha, banged in a 1’55.792 to end 1.476 off the pace in eighth and ahead of Valentino Rossi whose front-end woes are still in evidence. The Doctor ended 1.483s slower than Vinales and only one place in front of Aleix Espargaro on the Aprilia.
Andrea Dovizioso, who has finished runner-up here for the last two years, ended in 11th place and 1.557s off the pace. Scott Redding was one place further back in 12th with Andrea Iannone on the Suzuki in 13th. He, and team-mate Alex Rins, were the only riders to use their aero-packages in the first session. Alvaro Bautista and Karel Abraham completed the top 15.
Abraham crashed at turn two late in the session just seconds after Jack Miller had done the same while Sam Lowes went down after six laps.
