Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso topped the opening MotoGP free practice session of 2018 by 0.061s from Valentino Rossi with reigning champion Marc Marquez in third place, with a variety of tyre combinations in use.

Dovizoso put in a 1’55.366 using medium Michelins all round and his lap was enough to depose Rossi’s 1’55.723, set when the Movistar Yamaha man changed from a hard front/medium rear to a medium front/soft rear. The Doctor then put in a 1’55.427 on his 16th lap to claim second.

Marquez stuck to a hard front/medium rear combination for the whole session and his best of 1’55.743 - set on his penultimate lap - was enough to fend off a hard-charging Andrea Iannone, who leapt up the order after slotting a soft rear into his Ecstar Suzuki for the last run.

The opening session doesn’t give much indication of what tyres riders will use in the race as the first clash will be held later in the evening on Sunday, so the second practice today will give much more of an idea as to the selections that will take place.

Dovizoso’s works Ducati team-mate Jorge Lorenzo ended in fifth place after changing his front springs halfway through the session. Curious as he spent three days testing here and he was also asking his crew to modify the seat foam to get further back on the GP18, which is even curiouser.

Neither of the works Ducati men are running the massive bugger-lugs aero package as the corner-entry benefits are vastly outweighed by the amount of drag they induce on the massive Losail straight, and neither of the works Yamaha riders used their winged fairings either for the same reason. The wings also make the bike more difficult to muscle around, and even big lads like Petrucci have chosen not to run them.

Monster Yamaha’s Johann Zarco hauled himself up to sixth place late on, using a soft front/medium rear while Cal Crutchlow stuck with his usual hard front/medium rear for sixth place on the LCR Honda. Whether that front will work sufficiently when the track cool later today remains to be seen.

Alex Rins, on the second factory Suzuki, ended in eighth place with Danilo Petrucci taking the Pramac Ducati to ninth. Tito Rabat was also a late charger, bagging tenth place on the Avintia Ducati.

Maverick Vinales finished just outside the top ten with a 1’56.130 but stuck with the same soft front/medium rear combination over 19 laps, and was able to stick in the 1’56s bracket for six laps. Dani Pedrosa was right behind him in 12th place with Aleix Espargaro, Alvaro Bautista and rookie Hafizh Syahrin completing the top 15.

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