Qatar MotoGP: Lorenzo leads Rossi in opening practice

Reigning champion Lorenzo went to the top of the times with a 1m55.693s relatively early in the session, his factory Yamaha M1 sporting the winglets have become commonplace in the premier class over the winter.

Lorenzo's early benchmark stood until the Spaniard returned to the track in the closing minutes and improved to a 1m55.515s, and found a further tenth on his very final lap to end up on a 1m55.440s.

That put him 0.267s clear of Rossi, running without winglets, who jumped to third in the final 10 minutes before overhauling Ducati's Andrea Iannone by a scant 0.029s in the dying stages.

On the 2014 Ducati, Hector Barbera was an impressive fourth for the Avintia squad, 0.370s off the pace, with Maverick Vinales making a late surge to fifth place on the best of the Suzukis.

Pol Espargaro (Tech 3 Yamaha) was sixth, ahead of the two Repsol Hondas of Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez, who had a low-key start to the season - Marquez trialling two different type of winglets during the session.

The second works Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso and the satellite Pramac machine of Scott Redding completed the top 10.

Bradley Smith ended the session 11th after picking up the dubious distinction of becoming the first rider to crash this season, as he lost control of his Tech 3 Yamaha at Turn 13 with two minutes left on the clock.

Practice results:

Pos.	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	1'55.440
2	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1'55.707	0.267
3	Andrea Iannone	Ducati	1'55.736	0.296
4	Hector Barbera	Ducati	1'55.810	0.370
5	Maverick Vinales	Suzuki	1'55.847	0.407
6	Pol Espargaro	Yamaha	1'56.051	0.611
7	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	1'56.098	0.658
8	Marc Marquez	Honda	1'56.258	0.818
9	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'56.387	0.947
10	Scott Redding	Ducati	1'56.412	0.972
11	Bradley Smith	Yamaha	1'56.524	1.084
12	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'56.596	1.156
13	Loris Baz	Ducati	1'56.783	1.343
14	Jack Miller	Honda	1'56.939	1.499
15	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1'56.981	1.541
16	Aleix Espargaro	Suzuki	1'57.096	1.656
17	Alvaro Bautista	Aprilia	1'57.129	1.689
18	Yonny Hernandez	Ducati	1'57.192	1.752
19	Eugene Laverty	Ducati	1'57.421	1.981
20	Tito Rabat	Honda	1'57.916	2.476
21	Stefan Bradl	Aprilia	1'57.989	2.549