Jorge Lorenzo raised its head a little during this second evening of the last test of the MotoGP off-season at Qatar. He still has one left, tomorrow, to definitively face the deadline that awaits him on March 8. Or the launch of the season on this same Losail track. Eighteenth, there is certainly nothing to brag about. But it's still less bad. More than two seconds behind the best time, Por Fuera's record rose to 1s149.
It's what you could call a productive penultimate day of testing for the new recruit of the Repsol Honda team. The Losail International Circuit started the evening in a much cleaner condition, allowing drivers to begin their work earlier in the day. A boon for Jorge Lorenzo who admits to being seriously short of time due to his withdrawal due to a wrist injury during the three days of testing at Sepang.
The Majorcan and his team continued to adapt the ergonomics of the bike to the body shape and riding style of the five-time world champion. It turned out to be a busy day for Lorenzo who was able to complete 44 laps while improving his time by 1,348 seconds to a time of 1'55.742.
« Today was better than yesterday » comments the teammate of a Marc Márquez fifth. “ We modified the bike to improve my feeling and confidence on the whole circuit. You can see we improved by over a second. The position is not better, but we are much closer to the outposts. This is the most important part. Tomorrow we aim again to take another step forward, especially with the corner entry, because I think there is still a lot to do ».
There is just one day of pre-season testing remaining before the start of the 2019 MotoGP World Championship in Qatar on March 8.
MotoGP, Qatar J2 Test: times
| 1 | 42 | Alex Rins | Suzuki GSX-RR | 1:54.593 | ||
| 2 | 12 | Maverick Vinales | Yamaha M1 | 1:54.650 | 0.057 | 0.057 |
| 3 | 20 | fabio quartararo | Yamaha M1 | 1:54.908 | 0.315 | 0.258 |
| 4 | 9 | Danilo Petrucci | Ducati GP19 | 1:54.953 | 0.360 | 0.045 |
| 5 | 93 | Marc Márquez | Honda RC213V | 1:55.004 | 0.411 | 0.051 |
| 6 | 41 | Aleix Espargaró | Aprilia RS-GP | 1:55.173 | 0.580 | 0.169 |
| 7 | 30 | Takaaki Nakagami | Honda RC213V | 1:55.175 | 0.582 | 0.002 |
| 8 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati GP19 | 1:55.205 | 0.612 | 0.030 |
| 9 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda RC213V | 1:55.247 | 0.654 | 0.042 |
| 10 | 44 | Pol Espargaro | KTM RC16 | 1:55.255 | 0.662 | 0.008 |
| 11 | 36 | Joan mir | Suzuki GSX-RR | 1:55.280 | 0.687 | 0.025 |
| 12 | 43 | Jack Miller | Ducati GP19 | 1:55.380 | 0.787 | 0.100 |
| 13 | 21 | Franco Morbidelli | Yamaha M1 | 1:55.556 | 0.963 | 0.176 |
| 14 | 53 | Tito Rabat | Ducati GP18 | 1:55.661 | 1.068 | 0.105 |
| 15 | 63 | Francis Bagnaia | Ducati GP18 | 1:55.680 | 1.087 | 0.019 |
| 16 | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Aprilia RS-GP | 1:55.698 | 1.105 | 0.018 |
| 17 | 5 | Johann zarco | KTM RC16 | 1:55.716 | 1.123 | 0.018 |
| 18 | 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | Honda RC213V | 1:55.742 | 1.149 | 0.026 |
| 19 | 46 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha M1 | 1:55.795 | 1.202 | 0.053 |
| 20 | 17 | Karel Abraham | Ducati GP18 | 1:55.951 | 1.358 | 0.156 |
| 21 | 88 | Miguel Oliveira | KTM RC16 | 1:56.274 | 1.681 | 0.323 |
| 22 | 38 | Bradley Smith | Aprilia RS-GP | 1:56.866 | 2.273 | 0.592 |
| 23 | 55 | Hafiz Syahrin | KTM RC16 | 1:56.983 | 2.390 | 0.117 |
