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MotoGP Qatar: Ducati's Dovizioso doubles up with fastest FP2 time

Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso completed a clean sweep of fastest times in Friday practice ahead of the 2018 MotoGP season opener in Qatar, narrowly beating Danilo Petrucci in FP2

Dovizioso, who had earlier topped the daytime FP1 session, edged out Pramac Ducati rider Petrucci by 0.006 seconds in the final minutes of the second session.

The second 45 minutes of running took place under the lights, in conditions more representative of what is expected for qualifying and the race itself.

LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow was the first rider to dip below Dovizioso's first practice benchmark, but Marc Marquez assumed the lead as the opening runs concluded, posting a 1m55.043s.

That remained the time to beat until Suzuki's Alex Rins shot to the top with back-to-back fastest laps, a 1m54.997s followed by a 1m54.985s as FP2 entered its final 10 minutes.

A 1m54.367s from Petrucci kicked off a flurry of improvements with three minutes left on the clock, but only Dovizioso managed to go better than the Pramac man, logging a 1m54.361s.

Rins had been shuffled down the order but improved at the death to finish third, within a tenth of Dovizioso.

There was a sizeable gap between the top three and the rest of the pack, with Dovizioso's team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, who experienced a disrupted start to the session as he was forced to pit due to his GP18 sparking, almost half a second down in fourth.

Andrea Iannone was fifth on the second works Suzuki, ahead of Honda trio Marquez, Dani Pedrosa and Crutchlow.

They were followed by three Yamaha riders, with Johann Zarco in 10th slotting in between factory riders Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales.

This means that Vinales, who won the race from pole last year, will miss out on an automatic spot in Q2 should he fail to break into the top 10 on combined times in the daytime FP3 session.

Aleix Espargaro was the top Aprilia in 12th, while his brother Pol led the way for KTM in 17th.

LCR Honda's Takaaki Nakagami was the session's top rookie in 15th place.

FP2 times

Pos Rider Team Bike Time Gap Laps
1 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Ducati 1m54.361s - 17
2 Danilo Petrucci Pramac Ducati Ducati 1m54.367s 0.006s 16
3 Alex Rins Suzuki Suzuki 1m54.458s 0.097s 19
4 Jorge Lorenzo Ducati Ducati 1m54.831s 0.470s 16
5 Andrea Iannone Suzuki Suzuki 1m54.841s 0.480s 20
6 Marc Marquez Honda Honda 1m54.850s 0.489s 17
7 Dani Pedrosa Honda Honda 1m54.851s 0.490s 18
8 Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda Honda 1m54.852s 0.491s 16
9 Valentino Rossi Yamaha Yamaha 1m54.853s 0.492s 17
10 Johann Zarco Tech3 Yamaha Yamaha 1m54.912s 0.551s 18
11 Maverick Vinales Yamaha Yamaha 1m55.195s 0.834s 16
12 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia Aprilia 1m55.236s 0.875s 16
13 Tito Rabat Avintia Ducati Ducati 1m55.308s 0.947s 18
14 Jack Miller Pramac Ducati Ducati 1m55.360s 0.999s 16
15 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda Honda 1m55.694s 1.333s 19
16 Scott Redding Aprilia Aprilia 1m55.718s 1.357s 14
17 Pol Espargaro KTM KTM 1m55.919s 1.558s 14
18 Franco Morbidelli MVDS Honda Honda 1m55.965s 1.604s 17
19 Thomas Luthi MVDS Honda Honda 1m56.242s 1.881s 16
20 Bradley Smith KTM KTM 1m56.260s 1.899s 16
21 Karel Abraham Aspar Ducati Ducati 1m56.394s 2.033s 17
22 Hafizh Syahrin Tech3 Yamaha Yamaha 1m56.454s 2.093s 17
23 Alvaro Bautista Aspar Ducati Ducati 1m56.990s 2.629s 14
24 Xavier Simeon Avintia Ducati Ducati 1m57.765s 3.404s 15


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