By recently finishing eleventh in the Qatar Grand Prix, Esteve “Tito” Rabat proved that he is much more comfortable on his Reale Avintia Racing team Ducati GP17 than he was previously on his Honda RC213V from Team Marc VDS. And it seems that he has never ceased to amaze.
During the first Argentinian free practice session, he set the seventeenth time in 1'41.421, 1.118 behind Dani Pedrosa's best time. It was in the afternoon that he amazed the crowd with the fourth fastest time overall, preceded only by the three factory Hondas of Marc Marquez, Cal Crutchlow and Dani Pedrosa.
The other Ducatis were far away, and Rabat for example preceded the official Desmosedici GP18s of Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo by more than half a second. If it rains on Saturday morning, Tito will automatically qualify for Q2, where with the form he is in at the moment he could have a big surprise in store for us.
According to Tito Rabat, « I'm very, very happy with the Ducati, it's the bike that best suits my style and the team is perfect. I'm very happy with how we started the season. We had a very full weekend in Qatar and we had a bit of everything, some good times, some not so much, but we were able to stay calm and we worked very closely with my team. »
Results of the first day of qualifying practice:
1 93 M.MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'40.781 16 1'39.395 13
2 35 C.CRUTCHLOW GBR LCR Honda CASTROL HONDA 1'40.345 17 1'39.799 12 0.404 0.404
3 26 D.PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'40.303 17 1'40.494 14 0.908 0.504
4 53 T.RABAT SPA Reale Avintia Racing DUCATI 1'41.421 22 1'40.346 18 0.951 0.043
5 29 A.IANNONE ITA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR SUZUKI 1'40.386 17 1'40.455 16 0.991 0.040
6 25 M.VIÑALES SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA 1'41.224 20 1'40.510 18 1.115 0.124
7 46 V.ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA 1'40.825 17 1'40.577 13 1.182 0.067
8 42 A.RINS SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR SUZUKI 1'41.802 18 1'40.592 14 1.197 0.015
9 5 J.ZARCO FRA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1'40.614 19 1'40.974 18 1.219 0.022
10 43 J.MILLER AUS Alma Pramac Racing DUCATI 1'40.715 18 1'40.842 14 1.320 0.101
11 19 A.BAUTISTA SPA Angel Nieto Team DUCATI 1'41.624 17 1'40.766 15 1.371 0.051
12 41 A.ESPARGARO SPA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini APRILIA 1'41.163 20 1'40.800 13 1.405 0.034
13 45 S.REDDING GBR Aprilia Racing Team Gresini APRILIA 1'41.346 14 1'40.839 12 1.444 0.039
14 9 D.PETRUCCI ITA Alma Pramac Racing DUCATI 1'41.066 13 1'40.863 12 1.468 0.024
15 4 A.DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team DUCATI 1'40.938 15 1'42.973 10 1.543 0.075
16 99 J.LORENZO SPA Ducati Team DUCATI 1'41.019 16 1'41.334 18 1.624 0.081
17 55 H.SYAHRIN MAL Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1'41.094 16 1'41.257 8 1.699 0.075
18 38 B.SMITH GBR Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 1'41.286 16 1'41.198 16 1.803 0.104
19 44 P.ESPARGARO SPA Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 1'41.355 17 1'41.867 13 1.960 0.157
20 30 T.NAKAGAMI JPN LCR Honda IDEMITSU HONDA 1'41.449 19 1'41.357 16 1.962 0.002
21 21 F.MORBIDELLI ITA EG 0,0 Marc VDS HONDA 1'41.538 18 1'41.832 16 2.143 0.181
22 17 K.ABRAHAM CZE Angel Nieto Team DUCATI 1'42.857 17 1'41.784 17 2.389 0.246
23 12 T.LUTHI SWI EG 0,0 Marc VDS HONDA 1'42.698 19 1'41.898 17 2.503 0.114
24 10
Reference times:
Test record: 1'37.683 by Marc Marquez (Honda) in 2014
Lap record: 1'39.019 by Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) in 2015
Best top speed: 334,4 km/h for Hector Barbera (Avintia Ducati) in 2017
Provisional classification of the MotoGP World Championship:
1 Andrea DOVIZIOSO-Ducati 25 points
2 Marc MARQUEZ-Honda 20
3 Valentino ROSSI-Yamaha 16
4 Cal CRUTCHLOW-Honda 13
5 Danilo PETRUCCI-Ducati 11
6 Maverick VIÑALES-Yamaha 10
7 Dani PEDROSA-Honda 9
8 Johann ZARCO-Yamaha 8
9 Andrea IANNONE-Suzuki 7
10 Jack MILLER-Ducati 6
11 Tito RABAT-Ducati 5
12 Franco MORBIDELLI-Honda 4
13 Alvaro BAUTISTA-Ducati 3
14 Hafizh SYAHRIN-Yamaha 2
15 Karel ABRAHAM-Ducati 1
Photos © Motogp.com
