Franco Morbidelli continued his upturn in form by topping the timed practice session at the Qatar MotoGP weekend.
Morbidelli set a time of 1:50.830 to end the session as the fastest rider, continuing his momentum as the fastest rider in practice back in COTA.
Alex Marquez took control of the session early on to lead Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia in the timesheets.
Things all changed as the riders went out for their final runs in an attempt to make it directly into Q2, as Bagnaia made his way to the top of the timesheets.
However, on his final flying run, Morbidelli produced a lap 0.145s faster than the Italian’s which saw him end the session as the fastest rider.
Bagnaia concluded the session in second place ahead of team-mate Marquez in third.
Fabio Di Giannantonio ended the second practice in fourth, 0.299s off team-mate Morbidelli’s best time.
Gresini’s Marquez finished the session in fifth, while Fabio Quartararo took sixth.
KTM had a positive showing in practice with Pedro Acosta in seventh and Tech3’s Maverick Vinales in eighth.
Rookie Fermin Aldeguer was ninth after producing some overtaking on his fastest lap of the session, as Johann Zarco stole the final automatic Q2 spot from Alex Rins in tenth.
Luca Marini led the factory Honda pairing in the session, as he took 12th, with Joan Mir 13th.
Brad Binder was unable to hold onto a top ten place and crashed late in the session as he ended practice in 14th, with Ai Ogura in 15th.
Enea Bastianini was 16th, as Jack Miller took 17th after his practice ended prematurely with his second crash of the day.
Raul Fernandez led a trio of Aprilias in 18th, with Marco Bezzecchi in 19th and World Champion Jorge Martin 20th.
Augusto Fernandez crashed late in practice and managed 21st, while rookie Somkiat Chantra was the first crasher of the session and completed the standings in 22nd.
