Qatar MotoGP qualifying

Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro having a bit of a rage moment on track. Looked for a second like he was gesticulating towards Tito Rabat, but if so, you couldn't tell from Rabat's reaction.

It'll be Q1 first up, and the big name there is Maverick Vinales, who won this race from pole last year. After a dour end to 2017, he's shown some flashes of that frontrunner pace in the pre-season.
He's not looked great this weekend so far - at least until FP4, where he finished sixth and crucially set his best lap on lap 13 of a 16-lap run.

Runner-up in Qatar for three years straight, Dovizioso was quickest in both of Friday's practice sessions

Instead, Marquez named last year's title rival Andrea Dovizioso as favourite for Qatar during the pre-season, and so far that's checked out. The Italian's long-run pace was strong in the Qatar test, and he currently holds the fastest laptime of the weekend, if only just by 0.006s.

Reigning champion Marc Marquez is most people's tip to repeat this year, but Qatar is not one of his best tracks. He admitted he was pushing in Friday practice – where he was half a second off the pace – and reckoned a front row start would be akin to pole position.

Hello and welcome to our live MotoGP coverage for the first time in 2018, as the series holds qualifying for the campaign's opening race at Qatar's Losail International Circuit.

This might or might not count as the year's first proper competitive session. If you wanted to get technical, yesterday's FP2 – which determined the 10 riders who automatically progress to Q2 – was plenty 'competitive' already.

Either way, it's good to be back, and we should be in for a fascinating one today.