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MotoGP, Test: Dovizioso shows his strength in Qatar

TIMES. Andrea quicker than Vinales and Crutchlow. Abraham a surprise 4th ahead of Lorenzo, Rossi is 7th, Marquez 12th after two crashes

MotoGP: Test: Dovizioso shows his strength in Qatar

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Ducati was expected to come to the fore in Qatar and Dovizioso has indeed shown his stuff. At what has always been a favourable track for the Desmosedici, Andrea recorded the best time of the day, a 1’54”819, almost one tenth better than the track record held by Lorenzo (1’54”927) and less than 3 tenths slower than last year's pole time.

Those hoping to see the GP17's new fairing were left disappointed, but the Red bike has proved it is not afraid of comparisons at Losail. The rider who came closest to Dovi was the 'usual' Maverick Vinales but he was 0'360 back. Crutchlow set the third fastest time, the best of the Honda riders, but already 0”601 from the front.

The first surprise is Karel Abraham who came in in fourth with the GP15, ahead of Lorenzo by just 0.003 of a second. Jorge is almost 8 tenths from his team-mate.

Behind the Majorcan is an increasingly convincing Jonas Folger who with the Tech3 Yamaha closes ahead of Valentino. Rossi is 0”860 from Dovizioso and a good half a second from his team-mate. Behind him are Pedrosa and Zarco, meaning Yamaha holds four of the top nine places.

Rounding out the Top Ten is Andrea Iannone, a good 9 tenths from the front, having crashed twice, once in the final stages. An accident that saw  Marquez, Rins and Pol Espargarò all go down at turn 2 almost simultaneously, causing a red flag roughly half an hour from the session's end. The track was then reopened a few minutes later.

This meant Marc crashed twice, having already fallen earlier while testing a new fairing brought by Honda. The world champion closed the day in 12th place, behind Danilo Petrucci, more than a second off the pace.

Very close to Marquez is the Aprilia of Aleix Espargarò (who also crashed), who precedes Miller and Redding, then Bautista, Baz and Rins. Pol Espargarò (who crashed twice) is 19th with the KTM, 1”846 back, behind him is Lowes (ridng the 2017 version of the RS-GP for the first time) and Rabat, who returns to riding after his injury at Phillip Island. Smith brings up the rear, almost 4 seconds back, behind test rider Kallio.

TIMES

Translated by Heather Watson
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