Blaž Štremfelj
Petronas SRT racer Franco Morbidelli was the fastest in the first free practice of the MotoGP class in Qatar.
The Italian was 1 seconds faster than Aleix Espargaro in Aprilia and Australian Jack Miller in Ducati with a lap time of 54.921: 0.125.
Fourth was Fabio Quartararo on a factory Yamaha, while fifth time was set by current world champion Joan Mir.
Training began with the fall of Johann Zarc just over three minutes from the start. The Frenchman, a Pramac Ducati racer, slipped in the fourth corner, where Jack Miller also fell 23 minutes before the end of the 45-minute training session.
At the top of the timeline, quite a few racers took turns, and the differences are small, which can be attributed to the fact that all the teams on the track in Losail passed this year’s winter testing. The fastest time was set by Pol Espargaro at one point, who was then overtaken by his brother Aleix on a Aprilia motorcycle, and the fastest were also Fabio Quartararo and Maverick Vinales, and Francesco Bagnaia on a factory Ducati.
With a lap time of 1: 55.266, Morbidelli took the top spot after 15 minutes of action, and in the second third of training he drove almost two tenths faster. Espargaro with Aprilia then briefly took the first throw with a time of 1: 55.092, to which Morbidelli responded with a time of 1: 54.921. The Italian was also the only racer of the first practice to run the lap faster than 55 seconds in one minute.
Espargaro finished training in second place with 0.125 seconds behind, while Miller improved his time after the fall and set the overall third time. Quartararo set his best lap time at the end of training, which was fourth best, and Joan Mir also climbed to fifth place only at the end.
Vinales did not improve his lap, so he slipped to sixth place, and Alex rins scored seventh time in second Suzuki. Francesco Bagnaia was eighth before Valentino Rossi. The latter was 0.498 seconds behind team-mate Morbidelli and was ninth at the end and Miguel Oliveira placed tenth at KTM.
Alex Marquez, who moved from the factory Honda team to the LCR team, overtook teammate Takaaki Nakagami with the eleventh time, and Zarco continued training after the fall and recorded the thirteenth time.
Fourteenth was Honda test and reserve racer Stefan Bradl, who will replace Marc Marquez in at least the first two races of the season, who still has not recovered from a broken arm last year in Jerez. His teammate Pol Espargaro, who was another of the racers who found himself on the ground during training, finished the tenth behind him.
