Dovizioso leads first day of Austria test as Ducati dominates

Fresh from his third place at the Sachsenring, Dovizioso left it until the final 15 minutes of the day's running to set his best time of 1m23.764s to go 0.583s clear of factory Ducati teammate Andrea Iannone.

Iannone had topped the morning session with a 1m24.669s, 0.119s up on Dovizioso.

Making a late jump to third place was the Pramac Ducati of Scott Redding, a further 0.114s behind Iannone and just 0.041s ahead of test rider Casey Stoner.

The Australian, making his fourth test appearance of the season after outings in Sepang, Qatar and more recently Misano, leaped up to second late in the afternoon on a 1m24.739s. 

He then improved to a 1m24.502s in the final hour, ending up 0.738s off the pace to complete an all-Ducati top-four.

Best of the non-Ducati runners was Maverick Vinales on the Suzuki in fifth, ahead of satellite Ducatis of Hector Barbera, Eugene Laverty and Danilo Petrucci.

Valentino Rossi was ninth fastest on the quickest of the Yamahas, 1.290s off the pace but 0.121s clear of teammate Jorge Lorenzo in 12th.

Aleix Espargaro on the second Suzuki was third quickest in the morning with a 1m25.099s, but failed to improved in the afternoon, ending up 10th fastest.

In its first test against rival manufacturers the KTMs of Mika Kallio and Thomas Luthi finished 16th and 18th respectively, the former lapping 2.292s off the pace.

The works Honda team, as well as Tech 3 Yamaha, is absent from the test, while Aprilia testers Sam Lowes and Mike di Meglio were present but did not use transponders.

Testing times:

Pos.	Rider	Bike	AM session	PM session
1	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1m24.788s	1m23.764s
2	Andrea Iannone	Ducati	1m24.669s	1m24.347s
3	Scott Redding	Ducati	1m25.181s	1m24.461s
4	Casey Stoner	Ducati	1m25.847s	1m24.502s
5	Maverick Vinales	Suzuki	1m25.181s	1m24.595s
6	Hector Barbera	Ducati	1m26.563s	1m24.649s
7	Eugene Laverty	Ducati	1m26.038s	1m24.751s
8	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1m26.379s	1m24.992s
9	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1m25.712s	1m25.054s
10	Aleix Espargaro	Suzuki	1m25.099s	1m25.223s
11	Yonny Hernandez	Ducati	1m25.713s	1m25.171s
12	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	1m25.317s	1m25.175s
13	Jack Miller	Honda	1m25.997s	1m25.345s
14	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1m25.710s	1m25.348s
15	Loris Baz	Ducati	1m26.942s	1m25.994s
16	Mika Kallio	KTM	1m26.264s	1m26.056s
17	Tito Rabat	Honda	1m27.016s	1m26.195s
18	Thomas Luthi	KTM	1m27.402s	1m26.405s