Qatar MotoGP: Iannone edges Marquez in second practice
Ducati rider Andrea Iannone took the top spot in Friday's second practice session of the opening MotoGP weekend of the season at Qatar, just shading Marc Marquez's Honda.
Andrea Iannone, Ducati Team
Ducati Corse
Iannone quickly broke Jorge Lorenzo's Thursday benchmark with a 1m55.388s, which was set in the opening stages of the 45-minute session on just the Italian's fourth lap.
And although Iannone looked vulnerable at the top of the timesheets in the last few minutes, he remained on top - Marquez coming the closest to dislodging the Italian but ultimately falling 0.013s short.
Suzuki's Maverick Vinales also looked like taking the top spot, entering the final sector fractionally fastest on his best lap, but dropped quarter of a second in the final part of the lap.
Pramac Ducati rider Scott Redding then demoted Vinales to fourth with a lap two tenths off Iannone's pace, before finding another tenth on his last flying lap to end up only 0.123s down on the pacesetter.
Behind Vinales, Andrea Dovizioso made it three Ducatis in the top five, albeit lapping 0.333s slower than stablemate Iannone.
Dani Pedrosa completed the top half-dozen on the second Repsol Honda, with both he and teammate Marquez using the smaller of the two Honda winglet options.
Valentino Rossi, who ran without winglets all session, made a last-second jump from ninth to seventh on the best of the factory Yamahas.
Winglet-equipped Lorenzo ended in ninth, 0.546s slower than Iannone and 0.051s shy of Rossi, one place behind the Avintia Ducati of Hector Barbera.
Danilo Petrucci, recovering from a fractured hand that forced him to miss the Qatar pre-season test, completed the top 10.
LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow and Avintia's Loris Baz were the only fallers of the session, the former tumbling at Turn 16 and the latter crashing two corners earlier, both without major consequences.
Practice times:
Pos | Rider | Bike | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Andrea Iannone | Ducati GP16 | 1:55.388 | |
2 | Marc Marquez | Honda RC213V | 1:55.401 | +0.013 |
3 | Scott Redding | Ducati GP15 | 1:55.511 | +0.123 |
4 | Maverick Vinales | Suzuki GSX-RR | 1:55.644 | +0.256 |
5 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati GP16 | 1:55.721 | +0.333 |
6 | Dani Pedrosa | Honda RC213V | 1:55.764 | +0.376 |
7 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha YZR-M1 | 1:55.883 | +0.495 |
8 | Hector Barbera | Ducati GP14 | 1:55.919 | +0.531 |
9 | Jorge Lorenzo | Yamaha YZR-M1 | 1:55.934 | +0.546 |
10 | Danilo Petrucci | Ducati GP15 | 1:56.258 | +0.870 |
11 | Aleix Espargaro | Suzuki GSX-RR | 1:56.293 | +0.905 |
12 | Pol Espargaro | Yamaha YZR-M1 | 1:56.324 | +0.936 |
13 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda RC213V | 1:56.489 | +1.101 |
14 | Yonny Hernandez | Ducati GP14 | 1:56.558 | +1.170 |
15 | Loris Baz | Ducati GP14 | 1:56.623 | +1.235 |
16 | Bradley Smith | Yamaha YZR-M1 | 1:56.728 | +1.340 |
17 | Jack Miller | Honda RC213V | 1:56.900 | +1.512 |
18 | Alvaro Bautista | Aprilia RS-GP | 1:57.012 | +1.624 |
19 | Tito Rabat | Honda RC213V | 1:57.429 | +2.041 |
20 | Stefan Bradl | Aprilia RS-GP | 1:57.541 | +2.153 |
21 | Eugene Laverty | Ducati GP14 | 1:57.722 | +2.334 |
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