Espargaro continues to set Qatar pace

An exciting FP3 session at the Commercial Bank Grand Prix of Qatar, opening round of the MotoGP World Championship, saw Aleix Espargaro (NGM Forward Racing) on top again, outpacing Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing) and Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) in the top three.

The revelation of the winter and of the Qatar weekend so far, Espargaro posted a 1:54.773 best time on the ‘Open’ Forward Yamaha, with Iannone and Bautista trailing him by 0.413s and 0.467s respectively. The non-Factory riders who tested at Losail two weeks ago are enjoying this Grand Prix so far, as the usual order has been upset in the desert.

Iannone, starting his second season in the premier class, was second quickest in FP3 and outpaced the Factory riders with a 1:55.186s best lap.

“I’m very happy with how it went today,” the Italian rider said. “I never expected it to go so well. Surely it is also thanks to all the guys who worked at home this winter I am happy that I was able to take advantage of almost one hundred percent of my bike’s potential. We still have to continue working to improve some small things on the bike to make sure that I am able to ride better for the race.”

Bautista was once again the protagonist of a strong session, setting that third fastest time with 1:55.240 lap. As a further demonstration of his competitiveness, he was also the fastest of the medium tire riders, beaten only by two riders on a softer compound – Espargaro and Iannone.

He enthused, “I’m happy because at the moment I’m the fastest rider with the medium tires. Also, my feeling with the bike has improved slightly compared to the recent tests. We need to further improve the behaviour of the machine with used tires, because after only three or four laps the rear tire performance drops a lot.”

Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso and World Champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) completed the top five, neither of them having attended the test visit.

There was a big crash for Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Bradley Smith at turn 5, but the Englishman limped away from the huge highside and was able to post the sixth best time of the evening.

Former World title winner Jorge Lorenzo’s woes continued as he looked uncomfortable outside the top 10 for most of the session and he was potentially heading for Q1 participation before pulling out a 1:55.495 to go seventh.

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) was eighth on Friday courtesy of his best FP2 time, while Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda) and Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) squeezed into the top 10, Rossi with a late best time in the final minutes.

Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech3) and the man he replaced on the Tech3 Yamaha, Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team), were the two big names to miss out on automatic Q2 participation. Crutchlow walked away from a crash at turn 10 and will look to improve on Saturday.

Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP) was the man on the pace in FP3 for Moto2™ at the Commercial Bank Grand Prix of Qatar, leading Dominique Aegerter (Technomag carXpert) and Esteve Rabat (Marc VDS Racing Team).

Cortese set down a 2:00.579s marker towards the end of the only outing for the intermediate class on Friday, but Takaaki Nakagami (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia) stays fastest on combined times by 0.057s from the German.

Behind Cortese, Aegerter was just 0.016s off P1 while third placed Rabat provisionally led the session and finished 0.067s off the top.

Both in the top five, meanwhile, were impressive rookie Maverick Viñales (Pons HP 40) and the quickest Thursday rider Nakagami.

In Moto3, Romano Fenati (SKY Racing Team VR46) led FP3 in Qatar with the best ever lap of Losail on a Moto3™ machine, with Alex Rins (Estrella Galicia 0,0) and his teammate Alex Marquez also in the top three.

Fenati battled for the top spot with the Spanish pair as they pushed their Honda bikes towards the business end of the timesheet and ultimately the Italian KTM-equipped rider prevailed with a 2:06.121 hot lap.

–From motogp.com

MotoGP Friday Practice Results (courtesy Repsol Honda)

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