Jorge Lorenzo leads Valentino Rossi in first Qatar GP practice
World champion Jorge Lorenzo led Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi in the first MotoGP practice session of 2016 in Qatar
Lorenzo spent the bulk of the 40 minutes at the top of the timesheets, with a lap of 1m55.693s set on his first run, which was longer than most of his leading rivals'.
With one minute left on the clock, he improved to a 1m55.515s lap, then bettered it again to 1m55.440s as he greeted the chequered flag at the end of the session.
Rossi was in the top five for the duration and then got within 0.156 seconds of top spot with his 1m55.707s, before Lorenzo's final improvement rebuilt the margin to 0.267s.
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Andrea Iannone was third for Ducati, having set his best time early in the session, ahead of Avintia Ducati rider Hector Barbera, who starred to take fourth.
Suzuki's Maverick Vinales was among the late improvers and finished fifth, 0.407s off Lorenzo, ahead of Tech3 Yamaha's Pol Espargaro.
Espargaro's team-mate Bradley Smith fell at Turn 13 with two minutes remaining and finished 11th, a day after announcing he is set to leave the Tech3 Yamaha squad at the end of this year.
Honda had a low-key start to its campaign, Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez seventh and eighth, two-time champion Marquez 0.818s off Lorenzo's fastest time.
Andrea Dovizioso and Scott Redding completed the top 10, ahead of Smith and Cal Crutchlow.
On his return from a broken hand sustained during the Phillip Island test last month, Pramac Ducati's Danilo Petrucci set the 15th-fastest time.
Alvaro Bautista was 17th for Aprilia in the first official session with its new RS-GP, with team-mate Stefan Bradl 21st and last.
Practice continues on Friday, with a pair of sessions.
Follow qualifying for the Qatar GP and Sunday's race on Autosport Race Centre Live this weekend
PRACTICE ONE RESULTS
Pos | Rider | Team | Bike | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Jorge Lorenzo | Yamaha | Yamaha | 1m55.440s | - | 15 |
2 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha | Yamaha | 1m55.707s | 0.267s | 17 |
3 | Andrea Iannone | Ducati | Ducati | 1m55.736s | 0.296s | 16 |
4 | Hector Barbera | Avintia Ducati | Ducati | 1m55.810s | 0.370s | 16 |
5 | Maverick Vinales | Suzuki | Suzuki | 1m55.847s | 0.407s | 16 |
6 | Pol Espargaro | Tech3 Yamaha | Yamaha | 1m56.051s | 0.611s | 18 |
7 | Dani Pedrosa | Honda | Honda | 1m56.098s | 0.658s | 16 |
8 | Marc Marquez | Honda | Honda | 1m56.258s | 0.818s | 15 |
9 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | Ducati | 1m56.387s | 0.947s | 14 |
10 | Scott Redding | Pramac Ducati | Ducati | 1m56.412s | 0.972s | 16 |
11 | Bradley Smith | Tech3 Yamaha | Yamaha | 1m56.524s | 1.084s | 17 |
12 | Cal Crutchlow | LCR Honda | Honda | 1m56.596s | 1.156s | 16 |
13 | Loris Baz | Avintia Ducati | Ducati | 1m56.783s | 1.343s | 14 |
14 | Jack Miller | Marc VDS Honda | Honda | 1m56.939s | 1.499s | 16 |
15 | Danilo Petrucci | Pramac Ducati | Ducati | 1m56.981s | 1.541s | 17 |
16 | Aleix Espargaro | Suzuki | Suzuki | 1m57.096s | 1.656s | 16 |
17 | Alvaro Bautista | Aprilia | Aprilia | 1m57.129s | 1.689s | 16 |
18 | Yonny Hernandez | Aspar Ducati | Ducati | 1m57.192s | 1.752s | 14 |
19 | Eugene Laverty | Aspar Ducati | Ducati | 1m57.421s | 1.981s | 14 |
20 | Tito Rabat | Marc VDS Honda | Honda | 1m57.916s | 2.476s | 18 |
21 | Stefan Bradl | Aprilia | Aprilia | 1m57.989s | 2.549s | 15 |
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