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By: Matt Beer

Summary

Status: Stopped
So, how about that for the first qualifying of the year? Seven riders up on provisional pole at the chequered flag, and in the end it was the privateer Tech 3 of Zarco that thwarted, quite convincingly, all of MotoGP's star-studded factory entrants.

On the one hand, he might still be bit of a long shot for victory tomorrow. On the other hand, with qualifying pace like that, this French sophomore rider is looking more and more like he could mount a genuine title challenge.

Until tomorrow, then, when the first points of what could be a spectacular MotoGP 2018 title race will be divvied out.
Zarco: "Pretty happy, the best way to start the season. I had a crash on FP4. I didn't get doubt over that crash, but it's not funny, you know, to be down before qualifying.

"But then I knew that with a new tyre and light bike I feel good. Since this morning, I got back my feeling that I had during the test. And to beat the lap record, that makes me really happy.

"Tomorrow is the main thing. Try to win, try to be on the podium. It looks the pace is not the best one, but at least to start from pole is the best chance to catch a good result."
Marquez: "Honestly, really happy. We work a lot on the pre-season, we work a lot and now was the first time of real time attack, and we were there, we were on the front row.

"Happy because here normally I'm struggling quite a lot. My target was try to be on the front row. I feel like on pole position because today was the main target.

"Johann was riding amazing, I follow him, he was one step in front of us. But anyway tomorrow the race is long, many laps, time to be constant and try to manage."
 
Petrucci: "Very difficult today, very very difficult. there was a lot of wind and then the track today was really dirty.

"In the first run in qualifying, I felt not so good, I maybe didn't warm up the tyre well, so I come back, and I say to the mechanics I want to go out alone. They say go now - and immediately there was 11 riders with me. Was very strange,

"I decide I have to do one lap, I push a lot. I saw very far Zarco doing a very very good lap, in front of me was Marc, I push very hard - and I didn't imagine to score the first row."
Marquez said yesterday that front row would be like pole, and to be fair he looks well chuffed. Just 0.005s separated him and the very formidable-looking Pramac Ducati of Danilo Petrucci for second.
Johann Zarco is still chasing his first win in MotoGP, but this is his third premier-class pole already. He finished 14th from pole at Assen last year, and eighth from pole at Motegi.
Vinales is the only rider to finish more than a second off the pace in Q2. Him and Rossi are two rather competitive souls, so they must really, really, really dislike today's pole-sitter and his 2016-spec Yamaha right now.
Q2 results: 1 Zarco; 2 Marquez; 3 Petrucci; 4 Crutchlow; 5 Dovizioso; 6 Rins; 7 Pedrosa; 8 Rossi; 9 Lorenzo; 10 Miller; 11 Iannone; 12 Vinales.
It's Zarco from Marquez, Petrucci, Crutchlow, Dovizioso, Rins. What a finish, eh?
JOHANN ZARCO goes top at the death! 1m53.680s, new Qatar lap record and pole position.
Seven riders under the provisional pole time after two sectors.
Chequered flag. Most folks' first flyers on this run were nowhere near, but they're finding speed now.
And how it's Pedrosa replacing Lorenzo on the front row, as he posts an identical laptime to teammate Marquez.
Lorenzo loses ground in the final sector and ends up third. A minute left on the clock.
Just over two minutes left on the clock, everybody should be able to put in two more flying laps. Lorenzo's on a good one.
And it is Lorenzo, currently making up the Q2 order just 0.839s off the pace, who has headed out first.
The record laptime to beat is a 1m53.927s, courtesy of one Jorge Lorenzo. He managed that lap in his first MotoGP qualifying in 2008, and it has stood ever since. But today might just be the day.
A customary mid-session lull, with all riders in the pits preparing for the decisive run.
Current order: 1 Dovizioso; 2 Marquez; 3 Crutchlow; 4 Miller; 5 Zarco; 6 Petrucci; 7 Iannone; 8 Vinales; 9 Rossi; 10 Rins; 11 Pedrosa; 12 Lorenzo.
They can. Marquez manages a marginal improvement, before Andrea Dovizioso stamps a 1m54.074s. That's very close to the lap record here.
Good start by Marc Marquez, top with a 1m54.411s. Johann Zarco second, three tenths off. But surely they can go a bit quicker.
Vinales out ahead to start Q2, but he sees four or five riders following right behind him, and ends up scrapping his first flying lap.
 
Q2 is now live. 15 minutes until we know who gets the first pole position of 2018.
Q2 line-up:
Andrea Dovizioso
Johann Zarco
Danilo Petrucci
Maverick Vinales
Dani Pedrosa
Andrea Iannone
Cal Crutchlow
Alex Rins
Jack Miller
Valentino Rossi
Marc Marquez
Jorge Lorenzo
Credit to Morbidelli's Marc VDS teammate and fellow rookie Tom Luthi as well. It's lovely to see him in MotoGP after all those years of top Moto2 performances. He's not far off his teammate at all, too, on the heels of an off-season disrupted by injury.
 
Proper good efforts there by rookies Franco Morbidelli and Hafizh Syahrin to line up 14th and 15th tomorrow. Syahrin in particular is a positive surprise, given he was such a late-notice addition to Tech 3 Yamaha due to Jonas Folger's withdrawal.
Q1 order: 1 Miller; 2 Vinales; 3 A Espargaro; 4 Morbidelli; 5 Syahrin; 6 Rabat; 7 Redding; 8 Luthi; 9 Abraham; 10 Smith; 11 Bautista; 12 P Espargaro; 13 Nakagami; 14 Simeon.
Despite being beaten by Miller, Vinales is fine. Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro ends up best of the rest in third, and he's half a second down on the leading pair.
Pol Espargaro's stood next to a broken KTM, it's not been a fantastic session for the Austrian marque, has it?
Chequered flag to wrap up Q1, as Miller beats Vinales by 0.003s!
Oh, he might have a point. Jack Miller improves too on Pramac's 2017-spec Ducati, and comes up just 0.165s short.
Despite looking a lock for Q2, Vinales is back out and pushing again. He improves to 1m54.637s.
Nieto Ducati's Karel Abraham was maybe a bit too eager to head out on track for his second run, because he ended up travelling almost the whole of pitlane with a tyre warmer stuck to his bike.
The fight for the second transfer spot is still extremely close, mind. Miller is 0.020s clear of Morbidelli, and Aleix Espargaro is only a further 0.006s off.
Q1 has now passed its halfway point, and it looks Vinales has already gone quick enough to avoid the embarrassment of an early qualifying exit.
Current order: 1 Vinales; 2 Miller; 3 Morbidelli; 4 A. Espargaro; 5 Rabat; 6 Redding; 7 Abraham; 8 P. Espargaro; 9 Luthi; 10 Syahrin; 11 Bautista; 12 Nakagami; 13 Simeon; 14 Smith (no time).
Vinales can't improve with his second lap, but that's no disaster - he's more than half a second clear at the moment.

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