MotoGP #QatarGP Losail Q2: Johann Zarco smashes the circuit record!

After the first 4 free practice sessions, the quiet force is called Andrea Dovizioso. But his lead over Danilo Petrucci and Alex Rins is tiny, while behind, a furious group of 7 is held in less than a tenth of a second...

Everything is therefore at stake in this 2-minute Q15, for Andrea Dovizioso, Danilo Petrucci, Alex Rins, Jorge Lorenzo, Andrea Iannone, Marc Marquez, Dani Pedrosa, Cal Crutchlow, Valentino Rossi et Johann zarco, to which were added Jack Miller et Maverick Vinales drafted in Q1.

It is now 25° in the air, 26° on the track, and a strong wind is still bothering the drivers for this final qualifying of the weekend.

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 (See here)
Qualification 1	Canceled due to rain (See here)	1'54.634 Jack Miller (See here)
Qualification 2	Canceled due to rain (See here)	1'53.680 Johann Zarco (New record)
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	1'53.680 Johann Zarco 2018

 

alex rins is the first to set off when the red lights go out. Conversely, Johann zarco takes his time to recover as much concentration as possible after his fall in FP4.

In the box of Jorge Lorenzo, the tension is palpable between the driver and his team.

At the tire level, fans of the soft/soft combination are called Andrea Dovizioso, Maverick Vinales, Alex Rins and Jorge Lorenzo, While Johann Zarco, Dani Pedrosa, Cal Crutchlow and Marc Marquez prefer a medium front tire. Jack Miller, he uses a medium rear tire.

From the 2nd round launched, Johann zarco takes Marc Márquez behind him, which allowed the Spaniard to set the first benchmark in 1'54.411.

In the next passage, Andrea Dovizioso (tender/tender) clocks a very nice 1'54.074 while, behind, the classification is a bit of a game of aspirations.

At the end of the first run, we find the following ranking: Dovizioso, Marquez, Crutchlow, Miller, Zarco, Petrucci, Iannone, Vinales, Rossi, Rins, Pedrosa et Lorenzo.

For the 2nd run, Valentino Rossi puts a soft front tire on while Johann zarco stays in medium.

Jorge Lorenzo (tender/tender) jumped from 12th to 3rd position before being dislodged by Dani Pedrosa.

In the last lap, there are 7 of them able to improve Andrea Dovizioso's time: himself, Marc Márquez, Cal Crutchlow, Johann Zarco, Danilo Petrucci, Valentino Rossi et alex rins.

Johann zarco then produced an incredible effort and took pole position with a fantastic 1'53.680! New absolute circuit record!

Photo credit and classification: MotoGP.com