Dani Pedrosa didn't miss his 200rd departure in MotoGP, a milestone he celebrated at Qatar, since he jumped, with his Honda, from seventh place on the grid to find himself third at the first corner. Then he returned to the ranks and finished his performance at Losail in the same position acquired at the end of qualifying. All four seconds behind the winner, but ahead of a Zarco who the rumor already puts in his place...
Dani Pedrosa, this year, will have to show that he still has his legitimacy within the HRC. Because the competition is tough. A Frenchman abandoned by Yamaha is knocking on the Honda door and he showed during the first race of the year that he knew how to lead a race starting from a pole position acquired with the track record.
So the teammate of Márquez rushed forward with his bit in his teeth. Not bad. But what followed was less exciting: “ Overall, I can say that I was happy with the bike. The start was good, I was determined and I made the right decisions in the first turns. I had taken a hard tire before and it was the right choice ". A tire identical to that of Márquez while Crutchlow, on the other RC213V, had mounted a medium.
« We worked all weekend on this front tire and in particular on its temperature rise in left turns. During the race, I paid attention to its wear ". But the pitfall came from behind! “ My rear tire started to spin excessively quite quickly and I lost a lot of time, especially in turn 3 and in the fourth sector. To defend myself, I could count on my braking thanks to the hold of my front tire. It's a shame, because without this problem, I could have made the podium ».
Titanium remains optimistic for the future: “ we didn't start the meeting with the right feelings and Friday and Saturday were not ideal. But we were able to progress and I was fast during the warm-up. I'm happy with the bike ».
All that remains is to materialize with a convincing result. In three weeks in Argentina?
MotoGP #QatarGP Losail J.3: Ranking
| 1 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | 42'34.654 |
| 2 | 93 | Marc Márquez | Honda | +0.027 |
| 3 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Yamaha | +0.797 |
| 4 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | +2.881 |
| 5 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ducati | +3.821 |
| 6 | 25 | Maverick VIÑALES | Yamaha | +3.888 |
| 7 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | Honda | +4.621 |
| 8 | 5 | johann zarco | Yamaha | +7.112 |
| 9 | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Suzuki | +12.957 |
| 10 | 43 | Jack Miller | Ducati | +14.594 |
| 11 | 53 | Tito RABAT | Ducati | +15.181 |
| 12 | 21 | Frank MORBIDELLI | Honda | +16.274 |
| 13 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Ducati | +19.788 |
| 14 | 55 | Hafiz Syahrin | Yamaha | +20.299 |
| 15 | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | Ducati | +23.287 |
| 16 | 12 | Thomas LUTHI | Honda | +24.189 |
| 17 | 30 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | Honda | +24.554 |
| 18 | 38 | Bradley SMITH | KTM | +31.704 |
| 19 | 41 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia | +34.712 |
| 20 | 45 | Scott REDDING | Aprilia | +37.641 |
| 21 | 10 | Xavier SIMEON | Ducati | +46.706 |
| Not Classified | ||||
| 44 | Pol Espargaró | KTM | 7 lapses | |
| 42 | Alex Rins | Suzuki | 10 lapses | |
| 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | Ducati | 10 lapses |
