Maverick Vinales shot to the top of the timesheets in the penultimate day’s running of MotoGP pre-season testing in Qatar, heading a Yamaha 1-2-3 at the end of Thursday.
Fabio Quartararo fired in Thursday’s quickest effort during the evening part of the session, a 1:53.398 leaving him fastest-albeit just over a tenth down on his best lap from Wednesday and nearly two-tenths back from Jack Miller’s leading time from the previous day.
The Frenchman looked set to top his second day of testing so far this year, until Vinales banged in a 1:53.244s with just over eight minutes remaining to take over the top spot-a position he would hold until the clock ticked down to zero on Thursday running.
The seven-time MotoGP victors gambit was a slender 0.019s faster than Quartararo’s best time from Wednesday, therefore leaving Vinales just 0.061 away from Miller’s current testing benchmark.
Franco Morbidelli would relegate Quartararo another position in the dying moments of the session, the 2020 vice-champion lapping just 0.079 away from Vinales.
The accolade for best of the rest went the way of Francesco Bagnaia, the factory Ducati racer achieving a best time just two-tenths off the back of the session leading M1, while Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro continued to look strong in fifth overall.
Suzuki’s two representatives followed up next, reigning MotoGP world champion Joan Mir leading team-mate Alex Rins by a narrow 0.033, while Valentino Rossi enjoyed his strongest day of pre-testing so far this year with a time good enough for eighth.
Johann Zarco steered his Pramac-run Ducati to ninth overall while Pol Espargaro completed the top ten after leading the way heading into the lunch break.
The factory Honda pilot’s day didn’t run totally to plan though as he suffered his first crash on a Honda during the early part of Thursday running, Espargaro going down at Turn 1 but continuing later, though Honda stable-mate Alex Marquez wasn’t so lucky.
LCR’s Marquez crashed heavily at Turn 9 as the session ticked over into its final couple hours, though fortunately he was able to walk away and be given a lift back to the pits by Tech 3’s Iker Lecuona.
The Spaniard then headed to the circuit medical centre for precautionary checks soon after the incident where it was discovered he had sustained a small fracture to the metatarsal in his right foot, potentially forcing him to miss the final day of pre-season testing tomorrow ahead of the season opening Qatar Grand Prix in two weeks time.
Stefan Bradl meanwhile returned to action after leaving the Losail International Circuit early yesterday following a crash of his own, the German ending the day 13th on the timing pylon just behind Wednesday pace-setter Miller and the second LCR Honda of Takaaki Nakagami.
KTM again looked to be struggling around Losail, Brad Binder its highest classified runner down in a lowly 16th ahead of team-mate Miguel Oliveira in 18th.
| # | Rider | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | VIÑALES, Maverick | 1:53.244 | |
| 2 | MORBIDELLI, Franco | 1:53.323 | 0.079 |
| 3 | QUARTARARO, Fabio | 1:53.398 | 0.154 |
| 4 | BAGNAIA, Francesco | 1:53.444 | 0.200 |
| 5 | ESPARGARO, Aleix | 1:53.640 | 0.396 |
| 6 | MIR, Joan | 1:53.827 | 0.583 |
| 7 | RINS, Alex | 1:53.860 | 0.616 |
| 8 | ROSSI, Valentino | 1:53.993 | 0.749 |
| 9 | ZARCO, Johann | 1:54.056 | 0.812 |
| 10 | ESPARGARO, Pol | 1:54.103 | 0.859 |
| 11 | MILLER, Jack | 1:54.347 | 1.103 |
| 12 | NAKAGAMI, Takaaki | 1:54.348 | 1.104 |
| 13 | BRADL, Stefan | 1:54.427 | 1.183 |
| 14 | MARTIN, Jorge | 1:54.483 | 1.239 |
| 15 | BASTIANINI, Enea | 1:54.505 | 1.261 |
| 16 | BINDER, Brad | 1:54.691 | 1.447 |
| 17 | MARQUEZ, Alex | 1:54.692 | 1.448 |
| 18 | OLIVEIRA, Miguel | 1:54.735 | 1.491 |
| 19 | PETRUCCI, Danilo | 1:54.895 | 1.651 |
| 20 | MARINI, Luca | 1:55.022 | 1.778 |
| 21 | TEST1, Yamaha | 1:55.080 | 1.836 |
| 22 | LECUONA, Iker | 1:55.195 | 1.951 |
| 23 | SAVADORI, Lorenzo | 1:55.754 | 2.510 |
| 24 | TEST3, Yamaha | 1:55.831 | 2.587 |
| 25 | GUINTOLI, Sylvain | 1:56.006 | 2.762 |
| 26 | PEDROSA, Dani | 1:56.706 | 3.462 |
| 27 | PIRRO, Michele | 1:56.732 | 3.488 |
| 28 | TEST2, Yamaha | 1:57.409 | 4.165 |
| 29 | TSUDA, Takuya | 1:58.437 | 5.193 |
