Dovizioso and Ducati lead first Qatar MotoGP practice
Andrea Dovizioso continued his rapid Qatar test form to lead the first MotoGP practice session of 2018, posting a 1m 55.366s lap to head Valentino Rossi by just 61 thousandths of a second.
The leading two held a significant advantage over third paced man and reigning series champion Marc Marquez, the Spaniard nearly four tenths behind Dovizioso.
The top five was rounded out by an encouraging Andrea Iannone for Suzuki in fourth, while the second factory Ducati of Jorge Lorenzo was fifth, albeit over half a second behind his team-mate Dovizioso.
Johann Zarco managed sixth on his 2016-spec Tech 3 Yamaha M1 just in front of LCR’s Cal Crutchlow, while Alex Rins rounded off a strong start for Suzuki with eighth on the timesheets.
The top 10 was completed by a pair of private Ducati’s, Danilo Petrucci’s newly-liveried Pramac Ducati GP18 leading Tito Rabat’s Avintia GP17.
Surprisingly far down the times were Maverick Vinales and Dani Pedrosa for Yamaha and Honda respectively, Vinales in particular still struggling to find confidence with the 2018-spec M1.
Hafizh Syahrin once again impressed, continuing his learning curve from pre-season testing to finish the first session aboard the Tech 3 Yamaha fastest rookie in 15th place. The Malaysian was six-tenths ahead of next rookie Takaaki Nakagami in 19th place.
KTM meanwhile look to be struggling around Losail, the Austrian marques RC-16’s ending FP1 in 17th and 22nd with Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith respectively, Espargaro 1.6 seconds away from Dovizioso’s leading time.