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Qatar MotoGP: Andrea Dovizioso's Ducati beats Hondas to pole

Andrea Dovizioso underlined Ducati's MotoGP resurgence by claiming pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix season opener ahead of Honda's Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez

The combination of Ducati's winter improvement plus the team's continued dispensation to use softer tyres in qualifying always made a Dovizioso or Andrea Iannone pole at Losail likely.

But in the early stages of final qualifying they trailed the Hondas, as Pedrosa - after a quiet winter and practice - surprised the paddock by pipping team-mate Marquez for provisional pole by 0.013 seconds.

Pedrosa then found another tenth to stretch his advantage, while Marquez never did manage to improve on his initial 1m54.437s.

Ducati had more to come, though, and on his final lap Dovizioso produced a 1m54.113s to beat Pedrosa by 0.217s.

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Three of the top five spots went to Ducatis, as Iannone took fourth and the older Pramac bike of Yonny Hernandez flew to fifth.

It was another muted Qatar session for Yamaha. Jorge Lorenzo was its lead runner in sixth, with factory team-mate Valentino Rossi two places further back behind the satellite Tech 3 bike of Bradley Smith.

After a disappointing Friday, Smith only just made it into Q2, scraping through to the pole shootout with his final Q1 lap.

The Briton was second to Pramac Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci in Q1, and the Italian went on to qualify ninth ahead of the Espargaro brothers, Pol leading Aleix.

Eleventh place for the elder Espargaro was a lower-key comeback result than Suzuki had hinted at with its winter form.

But it almost got both bikes into Q2, with Maverick Vinales only missing out by 0.011s thanks to Smith's late charge.

Scott Redding was the other man whose hopes of escaping Q1 were dashed in the closing minutes of the preliminary session as he was pushed back to fourth and therefore 14th on the grid..

Cal Crutchlow was the final Q2 participant, but didn't get chance to try to reproduce his superb practice three form as he crashed in the pole session, leaving him 12th.

His LCR team-mate Jack Miller was responsible for qualifying's other accident, crashing early in Q1 and consigning himself 22nd on the grid.

STARTING GRID:

Pos Rider Team Bike Time Gap
1 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Ducati 1m54.113s -
2 Dani Pedrosa Honda Honda 1m54.330s 0.217s
3 Marc Marquez Honda Honda 1m54.437s 0.324s
4 Andrea Iannone Ducati Ducati 1m54.521s 0.408s
5 Yonny Hernandez Pramac Racing Ducati 1m54.675s 0.562s
6 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha Yamaha 1m54.711s 0.598s
7 Bradley Smith Tech 3 Yamaha 1m54.732s 0.619s
8 Valentino Rossi Yamaha Yamaha 1m54.851s 0.738s
9 Danilo Petrucci Pramac Racing Ducati 1m54.876s 0.763s
10 Pol Espargaro Tech 3 Yamaha 1m55.004s 0.891s
11 Aleix Espargaro Suzuki Suzuki 1m55.035s 0.922s
12 Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda 1m55.123s 1.010s
13 Maverick Vinales Suzuki Suzuki 1m55.246s -
14 Scott Redding Marc VDS Honda 1m55.428s -
15 Hector Barbera Avintia Racing Ducati 1m55.604s -
16 Mike Di Meglio Avintia Racing Ducati 1m55.729s -
17 Nicky Hayden Aspar Honda 1m55.756s -
18 Stefan Bradl Forward Racing Yamaha Forward 1m55.791s -
19 Eugene Laverty Aspar Honda 1m55.848s -
20 Karel Abraham AB Motoracing Honda 1m55.892s -
21 Alvaro Bautista Aprilia Gresini Aprilia 1m56.187s -
22 Jack Miller LCR Honda 1m56.287s -
23 Loris Baz Forward Racing Yamaha Forward 1m56.454s -
24 Alex de Angelis IodaRacing Project ART/Aprilia 1m56.793s -
25 Marco Melandri Aprilia Gresini Aprilia 1m57.934s -


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