MotoGP Qatar test: Ducati's Dovizioso starts final running on top

Dovizioso lapped the Losail circuit, widely recognised as a happy hunting ground for Ducati, in 1m54.818s, coming up just 0.008 seconds short of the benchmark time from last year's pre-season test.

That was set by Jorge Lorenzo on his Yamaha, and it was the Spaniard - now a Ducati rider - who Dovizioso deposed with a little over two hours left on the clock.

The Ducati one-two was not to last as Yamaha's Maverick Vinales, who topped testing at Sepang and Phillip Island, moved up to second place, ending the session 0.361s adrift of Dovizioso.

With an hour to go, Lorenzo was then demoted to fifth by LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow and Karel Abraham on Aspar's GP15 Ducati.

Tech3 Yamaha's Jonas Folger maintained his strong form from Phillip Island to take sixth, the rookie heading works rider Valentino Rossi, Honda man Dani Pedrosa and his own team-mate Johann Zarco.

Reigning champion Marc Marquez was only 12th, 1.081s off the pace, his day punctuated by two crashes.

The Spaniard first fell midway through the session shortly after heading out with Honda's new fairing and then crashed at Turn 2 in the final hour.

Moto2 graduates Alex Rins (Suzuki) and Sam Lowes (Aprilia) also fell at that spot in quick succession, as did Pol Espargaro (KTM), for whom it was the second crash of the day.

Rins and Lowes' more experienced team-mates Andrea Iannone and Aleix Espargaro had earlier falls of their own, Iannone finishing the session in 10th place as the last rider within a second of Dovizioso.

Pol Espargaro was the best of the KTMs in 19th place, with test rider Mika Kallio starting his week of running with the 22nd-fastest time and Bradley Smith rounding out the order, 3.936s off Dovizioso's pace.

DAY ONE TEST TIMES:

Pos	Rider	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1m54.819s	-	36
2	Maverick Vinales	Yamaha	1m55.179s	0.360s	60
3	Cal Crutchlow	LCR Honda	1m55.420s	0.601s	28
4	Karel Abraham	Aspar Ducati	1m55.613s	0.794s	42
5	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	1m55.616s	0.797s	46
6	Jonas Folger	Tech3 Yamaha	1m55.640s	0.821s	37
7	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1m55.679s	0.860s	48
8	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	1m55.692s	0.873s	38
9	Johann Zarco	Tech3 Yamaha	1m55.705s	0.886s	54
10	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	1m55.751s	0.932s	41
11	Danilo Petrucci	Pramac Ducati	1m55.830s	1.011s	41
12	Marc Marquez	Honda	1m55.899s	1.080s	39
13	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	1m55.916s	1.097s	43
14	Jack Miller	MVDS Honda	1m56.017s	1.198s	59
15	Scott Redding	Pramac Ducati	1m56.085s	1.266s	37
16	Alvaro Bautista	Aspar Ducati	1m56.116s	1.297s	43
17	Loris Baz	Avintia Ducati	1m56.193s	1.374s	31
18	Alex Rins	Suzuki	1m56.589s	1.770s	48
19	Pol Espargaro	KTM	1m56.665s	1.846s	46
20	Sam Lowes	Aprilia	1m57.090s	2.271s	38
21	Tito Rabat	MVDS Honda	1m57.455s	2.636s	46
22	Mika Kallio	KTM	1m58.039s	3.220s	32
23	Bradley Smith	KTM	1m58.755s	3.936s	46

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MotoGP Qatar test: Ducati's Dovizioso starts final running on top

Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso topped the timesheets in a crash-filled first day of the final pre-season MotoGP test in Qatar