Qatar MotoGP test: Maverick Vinales leads day one for Yamaha

Vinales, who went quickest in this test last year before winning the season-opener at the same venue from pole, has endured a troubled run in winter testing at previous venues Sepang and Buriram.

But he was back on top form at the Losail track on Thursday, securing first place courtesy of a 1m55.053s effort that came towards the end of a packed 64-lap programme.

Outside of the top 10 for much of the day, Vinales vaulted to the top spot with just under two hours left on the clock, surpassing Jorge Lorenzo by 0.370 seconds.

Vinales didn't improve on that time, and his advantage shrunk to just 0.051s by the end, as Lorenzo's Ducati team-mate Dovizioso had slotted into the runner-up spot.

Dovizioso's former team-mate Andrea Iannone, now at Suzuki, mounted a late challenge for the day's honours with 30 minutes remaining - but came up 0.003s short of second place.

Tech3 Yamaha's Johann Zarco made up a top four split by just 0.133s, while Lorenzo's earlier pacesetting time left him fifth at the chequered flag.

Yamaha works rider Valentino Rossi had headed the field halfway into the eight-hour session, but ended the day 0.009s behind Lorenzo - with Suzuki's Alex Rins equalling the seven-time premier-class champion's time late on.

Danilo Petrucci, riding a current-spec Ducati Desmosedici for Pramac, was eighth ahead of LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow, who led the marque's works pairing Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa. Pedrosa suffered two crashes during the day.

Avintia Ducati's new rider Tito Rabat - 16th-fastest on the day - was also among those to suffer a fall, but led the field in mileage with 69 laps.

Aprilia newcomer Scott Redding, who was off team-mate Aleix Espargaro's pace in the two preceding tests, was the lead RS-GP in the classification this time, finishing nine tenths behind Vinales in 15th.

KTM's efforts were spearheaded by the returning Pol Espargaro, who took 19th, 1.2s off the pace.

Confirmed by Tech3 for the full season after his Sepang test debut, Hafizh Syahrin ended the first day in Qatar 22nd - just 1.7s behind Vinales.

Thursday test times

Pos	Rider	Team	Bike	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Maverick Vinales	Yamaha	Yamaha	1m55.053ss	1m55.053s	64
2	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	Ducati	1m55.104ss	0.051s	48
3	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	Suzuki	1m55.107ss	0.054s	58
4	Johann Zarco	Tech3 Yamaha	Yamaha	1m55.186ss	0.133s	52
5	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	Ducati	1m55.423ss	0.370s	55
6	Alex Rins	Suzuki	Suzuki	1m55.432ss	0.379s	67
7	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	Yamaha	1m55.432ss	0.379s	54
8	Danilo Petrucci	Pramac Ducati	Ducati	1m55.528ss	0.475s	47
9	Cal Crutchlow	LCR Honda	Honda	1m55.536ss	0.483s	45
10	Marc Marquez	Honda	Honda	1m55.545ss	0.492s	47
11	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	Honda	1m55.555ss	0.502s	37
12	Jack Miller	Pramac Ducati	Ducati	1m55.688ss	0.635s	44
13	Alvaro Bautista	Aspar Ducati	Ducati	1m55.848ss	0.795s	53
14	Takaaki Nakagami	LCR Honda	Honda	1m55.853ss	0.800s	64
15	Scott Redding	Aprilia	Aprilia	1m55.931ss	0.878s	45
16	Tito Rabat	Avintia Ducati	Ducati	1m56.029ss	0.976s	69
17	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	Aprilia	1m56.062ss	1.009s	50
18	Karel Abraham	Aspar Ducati	Ducati	1m56.268ss	1.215s	54
19	Pol Espargaro	KTM	KTM	1m56.275ss	1.222s	56
20	Bradley Smith	KTM	KTM	1m56.421ss	1.368s	64
21	Franco Morbidelli	MVDS Honda	Honda	1m56.608ss	1.555s	60
22	Hafizh Syahrin	Tech3 Yamaha	Yamaha	1m56.731ss	1.678s	58
23	Thomas Luthi	MVDS Honda	Honda	1m57.292ss	2.239s	64
24	Xavier Simeon	Avintia Ducati	Ducati	1m57.713ss	2.660s	47