Qatar MotoGP: Rossi tops first '19 practice session, Lorenzo second

Reigning champion Marquez led the majority of the 45-minute daylight session after setting an early benchmark of 1m55.164s, which stood as the best time until the closing moments.

In his first official practice session as a Honda rider, Lorenzo managed to beat Marquez with a 1m55.217s to briefly go top of the order with two minutes left on the clock.

But with 10 seconds left before the chequered flag was shown, Rossi logged a 1m55.048s to beat Lorenzo by 0.079 seconds and Marquez by 0.116s.

Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso (pictured below) was fourth fastest, just 0.169s shy of Rossi, while his new team-mate Danilo Petrucci was exactly half a tenth further back in fifth.

Maverick Vinales ended up sixth fastest on the second of the factory Yamahas, 0.276s slower than pacesetting team-mate Rossi.

Franco Morbidelli was top independent rider in eighth for Petronas SRT Yamaha, followed by Jack Miller on the Pramac Ducati, Suzuki's Alex Rins and the leading LCR Honda of Takaaki Nakagami.

Fabio Quartararo (SRT Yamaha) was the best of the rookies in 11th, less than half a second off the pace.

Pol Espargaro led KTM's efforts in 12th, one place ahead of elder brother Aleix on the Aprilia and seven ahead of team-mate Johann Zarco in 19th.

Cal Crutchlow (LCR) was the 17th and final rider to lap within a second of Rossi.

Tech3 KTM rider Hafizh Syahrin was the first rider to crash early in the session and ended up 22nd, ahead of only Aprilia test rider Bradley Smith.

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