Qualified eighth and behind his teammate Quarterly fifth, Franco Morbidelli hoped to finish his first Grand Prix of the year in Qatar in this top 10 zone. However, it was different and the Italian will postpone a possible duel with the master of the academy until later Valentino Rossi. Still, he does better than his classmate bagnaia, who did not see the finish. It goes to show that nothing is easy in MotoGP.
The two Italians were in sight during the off-season and their eldest to whom they owe a lot Valentino Rossi was worried to see them as direct rivals. But, the latter still has a little margin. The Losail race demonstrated this. The 2 Moto2017 World Champion explains: “ I will divide my race in two: the first half was good, even if the start was bad. I could easily take positions, ride with the leading group and save my tires ».
The best rookie of the previous year in MotoGP regained his 8th starting place and also took part in a duel with his mentor, Valentino Rossi. But halfway through the race, things evolved less favorably: “ unfortunately we made a bad decision regarding the rear tire. We had opted for the soft, while most of the pilots had mounted the medium. I had to make sure the tire would last as long as possible, but from halfway around I had problems ».
Morbidely gradually lost contact with the leaders, then Takaaki Nakagami passed and in the last laps, the Aprilia rider, Aleix Espargaro, pushed the Petronas Yamaha rider out of the top ten. In the end, the 24-year-old Roman crossed the finish line in eleventh place.
« It's a shame because we had the pace to do better. We were pretty strong all weekend. So we need to focus on the positives and take advantage of this momentum for Argentina " finished Morbidely on speedweek. This second Grand Prix of the year will take place from March 29 to 31.
MotoGP, Qatar J3: classification
| 1 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | 42'36.902 |
| 2 | 93 | Marc MÁRQUEZ | Honda | +0.023 |
| 3 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | +0.320 |
| 4 | 42 | Alex RINS | Suzuki | +0.457 |
| 5 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Yamaha | +0.600 |
| 6 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ducati | +2.320 |
| 7 | 12 | Maverick VIÑALES | Yamaha | +2.481 |
| 8 | 36 | Joan Mir | Suzuki | +5.088 |
| 9 | 30 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | Honda | +7.406 |
| 10 | 41 | Aleix ESPARGARÓ | Aprilia | +9.636 |
| 11 | 21 | Frank MORBIDELLI | Yamaha | +9.647 |
| 12 | 44 | Pol ESPARGARÓ | KTM | +12.774 |
| 13 | 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | Honda | +14.307 |
| 14 | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Aprilia | +14.349 |
| 15 | 5 | johann zarco | KTM | +15.093 |
| 16 | 20 | Fabio QUARTARARO | Yamaha | +15.905 |
| 17 | 88 | Miguel OLIVEIRA | KTM | +16.377 |
| 18 | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | Ducati | +22.972 |
| 19 | 53 | Tito RABAT | Ducati | +23.039 |
| 20 | 55 | Hafiz Syahrin | KTM | +43.242 |
| Not Classified | ||||
| 38 | Bradley SMITH | Aprilia | 2 lapses | |
| 43 | Jack Miller | Ducati | 10 lapses | |
| 63 | Francesco Bagnaia | Ducati | 13 lapses |
