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General

Qatar MotoGP qualifying

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Q1 results: 1 Crutchlow; 2 Nakagami; 3 Bagnaia; 4 Rossi; 5 Lorenzo; 6 P Espargaro; 7 Oliveira; 8 Rabat; 9 Iannone; 10 Abraham; 11 Zarco; 12 Syahrin; 13 Smith.
Iannone has just had a laptime cancelled for exceeding track limits, but that doesn't look to have made a difference.
Rossi can't do it! His qualifying is over, although he does surpass Lorenzo to secure 14th place on the grid at the chequered flag.
Bagnaia just misses out on advancing, but demotes Lorenzo to 14th on the grid at best.
Pol Espargaro demotes Rossi to sixth place, but the Italian is on another personal best lap.
Crash
Johann Zarco has crashed. He will start 21st at best.
Checkered flag
The chequered flag is waving.
With less than half a minute left on the clock, Rossi improves his laptime - but he can do no better than fifth.
And he does, going 0.161s slower and officially ruling Lorenzo out of Q2!
Stopwatch
Cal Crutchlow sets the new benchmark, a 1m54.270s. His LCR teammate Nakagami is on pace to improve as well.
Crash
Tito Rabat's down as well.
Nakagami only just misses out on breaking into the top two - he's 0.023s off the pace.
The Honda newcomer is unhurt, but he is very miffed. His Q1 is over - and he might not make Q2.
Crash
Lorenzo's down!
Under four minutes left in the session, Nakagami is the first rider to begin a flying lap on his second run.
Rossi bolting on new softs and new rears on the Yamaha. He already did qualifying runs in FP2 and FP3, so if he makes Q2 - and it's a very, very big if - he probably won't be able to do too many runs.
It's looking like a baptism of fire for Zarco at KTM at the moment - he's well adrift of Espargaro and Oliveira, and even Syahrin is just a couple of hundredths behind.
Information
Current order: 1 Crutchlow; 2 Lorenzo, +0.002s; 3 Bagnaia, +0.109s; 4 P Espargaro, +0.289s; 5 Nakagami, +0.494s; 6 Oliveira, +0.561s; 7 Rossi, +0.646s; 8 Rabat, +0.867s; 9 Iannone, +0.903s; 10 Abraham, +1.081s; 11 Zarco, +1.352s; 12 Syahrin, +1.378s; 13 Smith, +1.475s.
Bagnaia moves up to third behind the two Hondas. Rossi's first proper lap is only good enough for seventh.
Stopwatch
Espargaro moves up to second, before Crutchlow sets a 1m54.561s, just 0.002s faster than Lorenzo.
Rossi is now tucked in behind Lorenzo but the Spaniard isn't pushing. Espargaro and Crutchlow are on very fast laps.
Stopwatch
Jorge Lorenzo sets the early pace with a 1m54.563s. Decent effort, and it leaves him half a second clear of Nakagami at the moment.
Rossi has rolled out of his first flying lap, after a terrible first sector following Hafizh Syahrin and his frankly beautiful Tech 3 KTM bike.
Pol Espargaro is the first rider to start a flying lap, with Abraham behind him. Rossi is running in a pack, Lorenzo is running by himself.
Avintia Ducati's Karel Abraham is first out of the pits. Aprilia wildcard Bradley Smith is the only rider yet to emerge.
Green flag
The first qualifying session of the 2019 MotoGP season is underway.
This will be the first qualifying for Johann Zarco at KTM and Andrea Iannone at Aprilia, but both have been firmly overshadowed by their respective teammates - the two Espargaro brothers - this weekend.

Iannone will need to make Q2 to have a shot at outqualifying Aleix, while Zarco could beat Pol in Q2 - but will probably also have to contend with Tech 3 KTM rookie Miguel Oliveira.
This'll be a big Q1 session for former arch-rivals Lorenzo and Rossi. Both could very well make it through - but both could very well be left behind, as the likes of Nakagami, Crutchlow and Bagnaia will also fancy their Q2 chances.

Lorenzo has looked fast enough over one lap, but might have disrupted the rhythm of his debut Honda weekend with a highside crash in FP3.

Rossi was quickest in FP1, but has puzzlingly had absolutely no pace since.
Information
Q1 line-up: Lorenzo; Nakagami; Crutchlow; Bagnaia; Rabat; P Espargaro; Rossi; Zarco; Iannone; Oliveira; Abraham; Syahrin; Smith.
Checkered flag
The race-simulation FP4 session has just wrapped up, with Danilo Petrucci leading a Ducati 1-2 by 0.013s over Andrea Dovizioso.

Maverick Vinales, Jack Miller and rookie Fabio Quartararo make it an all-Ducati/Yamaha top five.

Marquez is sixth, while his teammate Jorge Lorenzo is only 15th, the first rider more than a second adrift of Dovizioso. Valentino Rossi is only 18th and not looking strong at all.
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Moto3 and Moto2 have held their first MotoGP-style multi-session qualifying contests today, with Aron Canet prevailing in the former and Marcel Schrotter taking a surprise pole in the intermediate class.
Information
There were five different pole-sitters here in the last five years - Marc Marquez for Honda in 2014, Andrea Dovizioso for Ducati in 2015 and then Jorge Lorenzo, Maverick Vinales and Johann Zarco making it three poles on the trot for Yamaha.
Reigning champion Marc Marquez looks favourite to take pole position after setting a new lap record in the second practice session on Friday.

But what might very well concern Marquez – who is still nursing an injured shoulder – is that he keeps crashing today, having just hit the deck in FP4 after falling in FP3 earlier today.
Hello and welcome to Motorsport Network's live coverage of the 2019 MotoGP season, kicking off today with the qualifying session to set the grid for the opening race of the campaign in Qatar.

By: Matt Beer

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