Espargaro sets early Qatar pace

Aleix Espargaro (NGM Forward Racing) set the pace in the opening MotoGP practice session of the year in Qatar on Thursday, with Alvaro Baustista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) and Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3) second and third respectively.

In the first Grand Prix practice session of the new ‘Open’ class era it was Espargaro in P1 with his Open entry Forward Yamaha with a 1:55.201 best lap, with Bautista 0.466 secs. behind him. Espargaro’s pace was over 0.3 secs. slower than he went in testing at the Losail circuit two weeks ago.

Espargaro headed the timing screens at the beginning of the session, while using a harder tire, riding in the higher region 1:55 territory on his ‘Open’ Forward Yamaha and the Spaniard was able to further improve his lap time on a softer tire.

“It’s a great start and it’s a good feeling to be on top of the time sheets,” Espargaro said. “We know that we had some advantage compared to the factory riders, because we were testing here two weeks ago and we started the practice session already with a good set up.

“Anyway I’m happy because I was fast with both soft and hard tire. I’m sure that tomorrow everybody will improve, but we also have room for improvement so I’m really excited to this start of the season. The most important thing is to keep on working and being focused, it’s just the first free practice and my target is to fight for the podium on Sunday.”

At the start of his second season in MotoGP Smith was third by a 0.6s margin, with Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing) and rookie Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech3) also in top five as the riders who tested in Qatar occupying the top end of the timesheet.

“Today was a really good start for us,” Smith said. “The track conditions were different to when we tested here, probably due to a sandstorm which happened recently. However, the grip improved during the session and I was able to do 1:55 lap times again.”

The younger Espargaro brother appears to be riding smoothly despite his collarbone injury sustained 10 days ago at this track.

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) and Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) were the quickest Factory riders in sixth and seventh, while the top 10 was completed by Colin Edwards (NGM Forward Racing), Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) and Nicky Hayden (Drive M7 Aspar).

World Champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) was 11th as he tested his fitness after breaking his right leg in preseason.

–From motogp.com

Practice Results (courtesy Repsol Honda)

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