Sergio Garcia led the way in Qatar for the opening practice session of the Moto3 world championship season, the Estrella Galicia man posting a late flyer to lead Tatsuki Suzuki.
Garcia-who won the final Moto3 contest of ’19 at Valencia- utilised a several-bike slipstream in the closing minutes of the session to deny early leader Suzuki by 0.199, the Japanese pilot improving late on to snatch second behind Garcia.
Alonso Lopez was third quickest on the first of the MAX Racing Husqvarna machines, while Ai Ogura took fourth on his Honda Team Asia bike.
Ogura shot to the top of the times heading into the closing stages, but was swiftly demoted to ninth as a train of riders shuffled him out of the top spot, although his final effort was enough to get him back into the top five ahead of the impressive Riccardo Rossi.
Filip Salac continued to display the impressive form shown in testing with the sixth quickest time, nipping ahead of Kaito Toba and Snipers team-mate Tony Arbolino.
The top ten was completed by Dennis Foggia-who begins his first weekend with the Leopard squad strongly in ninth-followed by Darryn Binder.
A sandstorm ahead of FP1 made the track slippy in the early stages, catching out both Andrea Migno and Albert Arenas.
Migno lost the front at Turn 11, while Arenas went down at Turn 6, although both were able to quickly remount and continue in the session.
Arenas ultimately ended up fastest of the pair, albeit down in a lowly 19th, while Migno followed shortly behind in 21st.
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