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As he did on the opening day of the MotoGP Qatar Grand Prix weekend, Franco Morbidelli was the fastest rider during the day’s first practice session.
You might have been confused thinking it was a repeat of FP1, as Morbidelli took first place just ahead of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaró, who continues to shine at Losail.
Morbidelli was fastest after the first few races of the session and apart from a fast lap from Fabio Quartararo midway, the Italian soon regained first place and was unrivaled.
Espargaró claimed second place at the end, and while it was another impressive performance from the Spaniard, the Aprilia rider suffered a first crash on his last lap.
As expected, lap times did not improve due to the hotter conditions, however the featured driver in FP3 was Luca Marini, with the rookie finishing third fastest.
The Sky VR46 Esponsorama Ducati rider was only + 0.179s behind Morbidelli.
Lap times were more than a second slower than FP2, with many runners in the 55th minute when the session ended.
Alex Rins was fourth fastest and the only other driver to be in the 1m 54s, with Fabio Quartararo following close behind in fifth.
Joan Mir was sixth for Suzuki and will have to advance to Q1 if he wants to secure a start in the first four rows before Sunday’s Grand Prix.
It was a better start to the second day in Qatar for Honda, as Takaaki Nakagami was seventh for the LCR team, while Repsol Honda test rider Stefan Bradl was ninth.
Maverick Vinales completed the session in eighth place, while in the top ten ahead of FP4 was KTM rider Miguel Oliveira.
Ducati’s Jack Miller remained the fastest rider of the weekend so far, but suffered his second crash early in the session.
