The weather conditions were not ideal during the first day of Friday, and there were many surprises such as the magnificent fourth place of Tito Rabat on his Ducati Avintia behind the three official Hondas. The third session was therefore of great importance to qualify directly for Q2, but the humidity of the track was not reassuring. Fourteen drivers found themselves in Q1, with two qualifying places for Q2. The last time that the 2 Ducatis of the official team were in Q1 was the 2017 French GP (Dovizioso 12th, Lorenzo 23rd and last). . This is the 2nd consecutive time in Argentina (Dovizioso 14th and Lorenzo 18th in 2017).
| #ArgentinaGP MotoGP | 2017 | 2018 |
| FP1 |
1'40.356 Maverick Vinales |
1'40.303 Dani Pedrosa (See here) |
| FP2 |
1'39.477 Maverick Vinales |
1'39.395 Marc Marquez |
| FP3 |
1'39.772 Cal Crutchlow |
1'50.396 Andrea Dovizioso |
| FP4 |
1'50.042 Marc Marquez |
1'49.358 Marc Marquez |
| Qualification 1 |
1'49.235 Dani Pedrosa |
1'49.128 Aleix Espargaro |
| Qualification 2 |
1'47.512 Marc Marquez |
|
| Warm Up |
1'39.620 Maverick Vinales |
|
| Course |
Vinales, Rossi, Crutchlow |
|
| All time lap record |
1'37.683 Marc Marquez 2014 |
The track was wet at the start of Q1, with an air temperature of 19° and 22° for the ground. The 14 drivers involved would have to qualify in the wet, which pleased some, but not others. There were only two qualifying places and it was going to be a close call.
The three Ducati GP18s were present, driven by Andrea Dovizioso, Jorge Lorenzo and Danilo Petrucci. Others were ready to go all out like Xavier Siméon, Hafizh Syahrin, the two Aprilias, the two KTMs, the three rookies Tom Lüthi, Franco Morbidelli and Takaaki Nakagami in the company of Siméon, without neglecting Alvaro Bautista and Karel Abraham.
Who's going through to Q2?
We're about to find out!#ArgentinaGP pic.twitter.com/fpZiO031wZ
- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) April 7, 2018
It was no longer raining at the start of the session, but the track remained wet. Xavier Siméon established the first reference time in 1'51.319. Andrea Dovizioso took the lead in 1'50.500, 0.047 ahead of Jorge Lorenzo.
Jorge took command in 1'50.230. Halfway through the session, the two official Ducatis qualified ahead of Scott Redding's Aprilia. Aleix Espargaro moved into third position ahead of his teammate Redding.
Dovizioso moved into first position in 1'49.518, then Aleix Espargaro overtook him in 1'49.128. The two men qualified, ahead of Karel Abraham, Jorge Lorenzo and Scott Redding.
Results of the first qualifying practice session:
#MotoGP Q1 🏁
It's @AleixEspargaro and @AndreaDovizioso who bag the two spots through to Q2!#ArgentinaGP pic.twitter.com/mcNtYuMHji
- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) April 7, 2018
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 / Dorna
