MotoGP #QatarGP Losail FP4: Italy annexes Qatar! Zarco trips!

At the end of the first 3 free practice sessions, the 10 drivers pre-qualified for Q2 are named Andrea Dovizioso, Danilo Petrucci, Alex Rins, Jorge Lorenzo, Andrea Iannone, Marc Marquez, Dani Pedrosa, Cal Crutchlow, Valentino Rossi and Johann Zarco.

We note of course that missing from this list is the name of Maverick Vinales, yet dominant here even a year ago. He will therefore have to go through Q1 to defend his chances and, for this, will have the difficult task of using this FP4 which will begin, both to work on his racing pace but also to continue to fine-tune his bike in configuration " Maximum Attack.”

For the others, it will be interesting to observe the tire choices made, but also the influence of track conditions on everyone's pace, with temperatures approaching those of tomorrow's race.

Note that there is a fairly strong wind on the Losail circuit which not only slows down the motorcycles on the straight and hinders them in turns, but also brings its share of sand to the asphalt...

The air is now at 27° and the track at 28°.

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 (See here)
FP3	1'54.834 Maverick Vinales (See here)	1'54.966 Johann Zarco (See here)
FP4	Canceled due to rain (See here)	1'55.248 Andrea Dovizioso
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 go out, we see that the choice of the soft rear tire is popular, since only Marc Marquez et Cal Crutchlow use a medium rear.

For the front, we find a little bit of everything, with Marquez, Crutchlow and Nakagami in hard, Rossi, Rins, Zarco, Luthi, Aleix Espargaro, Andrea Dovizioso, Hafiz Syahrin, Franco Morbidelli, Karel Abraham, Pol Espargaro and Andrea Iannone in medium, the others in soft.

From his first lap launched, Jorge Lorenzo encounters a mechanical problem and is forced to return to his box. He is furious !

Meanwhile, Valentino Rossi takes the lead in front Marc Marquez Danilo Petrucci, Andrea Dovizioso, Dani Pedrosa, Cal Crutchlow, Maverick Vinales, Johann Zarco and Andrea Iannone.

After five rounds, Danilo Petrucci, who is one of the few to use a soft/soft combination, recorded a 1'55.3 10 which gave him the lead by 9 hundredths of a second.

In his sixth round, Takaaki Nakagami minor fall at turn #15.

Espargaro Pol does the same a few laps later at turn #2. The Granolers driver gets up immediately, which reassures his fans who are currently worried about his back problems.

A few moments later, John Zarco also lost control of his motorcycle at the last turn #16.

At mid-session, the top 10 is made up of Petrucci, Rossi, Rins, Marquez, Crutchlow, Dovizioso, Pedrosa, Vinales, Zarco and Miller.

Maverick Vinales, who uses soft tires front and rear, climbs to fifth position, 3/10 behind Danilo Petrucci, in 1'55.654.

At the end of the session, only the two official Honda drivers used a hard tire at the front, before being joined in this choice by Alex Espargaro.

Five minutes from the checkered flag, Maverick Vinales takes 3rd position, beforealex rins don't dislodge it.

In extremis, Andrea Dovozioso (medium/soft) reminds us in 1'55.248 that we will have to count on him tomorrow...

Italian hat-trick ahead of Spanish hat-trick for this session.

Photo credit and classification: MotoGP.com