Takaaki Nakagami had nevertheless been sparkling during off-season tests. Making familiarity with the top 10 more often than not, making us forget that the hoped-for star debutant was a Morbidelli crowned with his world crown in Moto2, the Japanese surprised even Márquez and Crutchlow in its curved passages. We were therefore impatiently awaiting this first Grand du Qatar to see it at work in real size. And Nakagami made himself very small…
Twenty third at the end of qualifying and seventeenth in the race. It's nothing to say that the Japanese quickly fell into line. If there had not been Xavier Simeon, the new LCR driver would simply have been last of the rookies. Lüthi has indeed finished one rank ahead of him, the correct Syahrin scored the points of the 14rd place while Morbidely established himself as a boss by taking twelfth place.
So nothing to brag about. What emerges from his comments: “ first of all, I thank my team for the great work accomplished during this weekend. She helped me a lot with this first experience. But obviously I'm not 100% satisfied with my result. I still finished the race which allowed me to gather as much information as possible. This will be useful for the next meeting in Argentina. I am sure that we will be able to progress quickly and show ourselves in a better light during the next races ».
It will be recalled that within the LCR team, the eldest and resized Crutchlow finished his performance fourth and best of the independent drivers.
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 |
