Alex Rins sprinted to the head of the timesheets at the end of Friday running for the Qatar Grand Prix as night dawned at the Losail International Circuit.
The cooler conditions provided by the lack of sun meant that the laptimes posted in FP1 were immediately shattered, with Pol Espargaro leading the way for Honda early on with a 1:54.155s-the Spaniard having utilised a fresh pair of soft compound tyres.
With FP3 taking place in the daytime much like FP1, the times in the second session of the weekend will likely decide the ten riders that will progress directly into Saturday’s pole shootout.
With much on the line a flurry of improvements were forthcoming throughout the field as the clock ticked down, with the Suzuki’s and Honda’s fighting between themselves for the most part for the top spot.
It would be Rins who eventually reigned supreme though as he posted a 1:53.432s tour, leaving him just 0.024s clear of Marc Marquez on the all-new Honda RC213-V.
Joan Mir backed up Suzuki’s strong Friday showing in third just over a tenth-of-a-second adrift of Marquez, while the Ducati and Yamaha machines of Jorge Martin and Franco Morbidelli completed the top five.
Jack Miller managed to grab sixth on the first of the factory Ducati Desmosedici’s ahead of a late-improving Aleix Espargaro’s Aprilia, with reigning MotoGP world champion Fabio Quartararo eighth overall.
Pol was ninth in the end on the second factory Honda while Francesco Bagnaia just held onto the final berth within the top ten ahead of Gresini’s Enea Bastianini, the Italian coming just 0.042s adrift of toppling the former.
KTM were left with work to do on Saturday with Miguel Oliveira its highest representative in 13th just ahead of RNF Yamaha’s Andrea Dovizioso and team-mate Brad Binder.
LCR Honda’s Alex Marquez suffered two crashes-both relatively slow low-sides at Turns 6 and 10 respectively- on his way to 16th, just clear of Maverick Vinales and Johann Zarco-two experienced pilots that will be expecting more across the rest of the weekend.
The accolade for fastest rookie went the way of Raul Fernandez on his Tech 3 KTM fractionally ahead of VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi, the latter’s team-mate Luca Marini the only other rider to suffer a spill throughout the test after he lost the front of his Ducati on entry to Turn 1.
