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Maverick Vinales tops second day of final MotoGP pre-season test

Maverick Vinales put Suzuki on top for the second time in 2016 MotoGP pre-season testing in Qatar on Thursday night

A 1m55.436s lap of Losail with just over two hours of the session to go allowed Vinales to edge out Ducati rider Andrea Iannone by 0.072 seconds and Wednesday pacesetter Jorge Lorenzo's Yamaha by 0.099s.

Vinales, who had also been quickest for a day in the previous test at Phillip Island, lapped 0.016s faster than Lorenzo had when leading the way on Wednesday.

Lorenzo had spent a couple of periods on top early in the evening before being edged back to third.

As had been the case earlier in the week, there were few improvements in the closing hours as cooling conditions left riders anxious over the possibility of dew building up on the circuit. Vinales' time therefore stood until the flag at 11pm local time.

It was another troubled day of testing for Honda.

Marc Marquez briefly went quickest on an early run, after few had ventured out in the daylight hours, then promptly crashed at Turn 1.

He was unhurt and returned to the track half an hour later, but was left back in ninth on the timesheet, albeit within six tenths of Vinales' pace.

Dani Pedrosa was only seventh on the fastest Honda, with Valentino Rossi splitting him from his team-mate. Rossi spent a spell second to team-mate Lorenzo before a flurry of improvements elsewhere demoted him, and said he had been saving tyres for the final day of running.

Ducati had a strong night. While Iannone's second place was the headline result, his factory team-mate Andrea Dovizioso claimed sixth and satellite Desmosedici riders Scott Redding and Hector Barbera were fourth and fifth for Pramac and Avintia respectively.

Aleix Espargaro filled the final top 10 spot on the second Suzuki. Both he and team-mate Vinales tried the team's new seamless shift gearbox during the session.

Pol Espargaro was just outside the top 10 in 11th and had a crash late on.

THURSDAY TEST TIMES:

Pos Rider Team Bike Time Gap Laps
1 Maverick Vinales Team Suzuki ECSTAR Suzuki 1m55.436s - 42
2 Andrea Iannone Ducati Team Ducati 1m55.508s 0.072s 41
3 Jorge Lorenzo Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 1m55.535s 0.099s 48
4 Scott Redding Octo Pramac Yakhnich Ducati 1m55.677s 0.241s 43
5 Hector Barbera Avintia Racing Ducati 1m55.815s 0.379s 35
6 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Team Ducati 1m55.856s 0.420s 46
7 Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team Honda 1m55.857s 0.421s 42
8 Valentino Rossi Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 1m55.947s 0.511s 56
9 Marc Marquez Repsol Honda Team Honda 1m56.046s 0.610s 42
10 Aleix Espargaro Team Suzuki ECSTAR Suzuki 1m56.126s 0.690s 32
11 Pol Espargaro Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1m56.173s 0.737s 30
12 Loris Baz Avintia Racing Ducati 1m56.427s 0.991s 45
13 Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda Honda 1m56.584s 1.148s 50
14 Yonny Hernandez Aspar Team MotoGP Ducati 1m56.667s 1.231s 38
15 Tito Rabat EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 1m57.263s 1.827s 49
16 Bradley Smith Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1m57.267s 1.831s 14
17 Eugene Laverty Aspar Team MotoGP Ducati 1m57.670s 2.234s 41
18 Alvaro Bautista Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 1m57.721s 2.285s 36
19 Jack Miller EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 1m57.789s 2.353s 20
20 Michele Pirro Octo Pramac Yakhnich Ducati 1m58.113s 2.677s 21
21 Hiroshi Aoyama HRC Test Team Honda 1m58.347s 2.911s 62
22 Stefan Bradl Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 1m58.418s 2.982s 16


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