MotoGP #QatarGP Losail FP2: Lorenzo sparks while Dovizioso leads a Top 10 within half a second!

When initial salvo fired by MotoGP riders early in the afternoon, the times were rather honest for a first session on the Losail circuit, taking into account a track that was still a little dirty and not completely "rubbed", as well as the high temperatures compared to those which reign now.

Under these conditions, the 1'55.366 realized by Andrea Dovizioso is rather correct, even if it remains more than a second away from the 1'54.316 obtained by Maverick Vinales last year in the same session (See here), a session which was however held in better conditions, much later in the evening.

Likewise, we are still more than a second away from the 1'54.029 recorded 15 days ago by Johann zarco during winter testing.

As the MotoGP riders prepare for this second session of the Qatari weekend, we expect a good improvement, on a track which has gone from 47 to 37°, and under the light of the floodlights now bathing a thermometer at only 26°.

MotoGP #QatarGP Losail Qatar	2017	2018
FP1	1'54.316 Maverick Vinales (See here)	1'55.366 Andrea Dovizioso (See here)
FP2	1'55.085 Scott Redding (See here)	1'54.361 Andrea Dovizioso
FP3	1'54.834 Maverick Vinales (See here)
FP4	Canceled due to rain (See here)
Qualification 1	Canceled due to rain (See here)
Qualification 2	Canceled due to rain (See here)
Warm Up	1'55.728 Marc Marquez (See here)
Course	Vinales, Dovizioso, Rossi (See here)
All time lap record	1'53.927 Jorge Lorenzo 2008

When the red lights went out, we noted that many drivers adopted the soft rear tire, of which Marc Marquez, Valentino Rossi, Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso. The latter is experiencing a small problem starting his GP18 but this is apparently just a false alarm.

Undoubtedly more serious, the motorcycle Jorge Lorenzo sparks on the straight because something seems to be rubbing on the chain. Thanks to the message displayed on his dashboard, the Spanish driver is called back to his box to change motorcycles.

Meanwhile, after only three rounds launched, Marc Márquez recorded a 1'55.410 ahead of a Maverick Vinales invigorated followed by Danilo Petrucci which sails at more than 348 km/h in the straight line.

Cal Crutchlow, equipped with the same tire combination as Marc Márquez (medium front / soft rear) takes the lead in 1'55.306, thus obtaining the best provisional time of the day, before number 93 achieves 1'55.043.

At the end of the first run, the top 10 is made up of Marc Marquez, Cal Crutchlow, Andrea Dovizioso, Alex Rins, Danilo Petrucci, Valentino Rossi, Aleix Espargaro, Dani Pedrosa, Maverick Vinales and Jack Miller.

At the moment, Andrea Iannone is 11th, Jorge Lorenzo 12th, Johann zarco 15th at 1,5 seconds in medium/medium. Obviously, the Tech3 driver is already preparing for his race…

On resumption, Jorge Lorenzo, which is then the only one to run with soft tires at the front and rear with Bradley Smith, rises to seventh position.

Midway through the session, Danilo Petrucci (medium/medium) goes from 5th to 2nd position.

At the microphone of Eurosport, Davide Tardozzi confirms that Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo will each develop their machines in a different direction in terms of chassis.

A quarter of an hour from the checkered flag, Andrea Dovizioso regains his 2nd place, only 88 thousandths behind Marc Márquez, while his teammate takes 5th position.

Alex Espargaro makes a pass through the gravel without falling on the handlebars of his Aprilia which has a brand new engine.

Five minutes later, alex rins, then 6th, took the lead by clocking a 1'54.997 on the handlebars of his GSX-RR equipped with a medium/soft combination.

Maverick Vinales then enters the top 10 at 6th position, and this is the moment when Johann zarco fitted a new soft rear tire on his Yamaha M1. So 14th, this allows him to move into eighth position from his first flying lap.

All drivers are now running on a soft rear tire with only 5 minutes left before the track closes.

Alex Espargaro takes 4th place, only 2/10 behind Alex Rins, but it's Danilo Petrucci which makes the powder speak with a thunderous 1'54.367.

Valentino Rossi climbs to second place but remains almost half a second behind driver Alma Pramac.

Two minutes before the curtain drops, Andrea Dovizioso breathe a hair's worth of glory Danilo Petrucci, in 1'54.361, one second faster than in FP1.

Jorge Lorenzo then completes a Ducati hat-trick preceding the Suzuki ofAndrea Iannone and a Honda hat-trick.

alex rins comes to disrupt this a little before the end but, paradoxically after very promising tests two weeks ago, the Yamaha seem this evening slightly dominated by the competition, even if it is necessary to put this into perspective by the fact that the Top 10 is located in just half a second.

Tomorrow is another day…