Ducatis lead the way on opening night at Qatar

The Ducati’s led the way on the opening day of the final pre-season test with Andrea Iannone outpacing Andrea Dovizioso by one tenth of a second in Qatar.

The pace of the Ducati’s was impressive on both the hard tyre as well as the soft tyre with which they set their fastest times. For today Ducati had to use one GP15 and one GP14.3 for each rider but from tomorrow they will both have two GP15’s at their disposal.

The pace of the Ducati, and Aleix Espargaro’s Suzuki, showed the potential for the Open bikes, particularly when armed with the softer tyre, but the long run pace on the harder tyre was also quite promising however Espargaro admitted that Suzuki needed to spend some time working on the electronics to try and maintain tyre life for longer during the race.

Jorge Lorenzo complained of edge grip problems and finished up sixth fastest with Cal Crutchlow seventh with another promising performance as he learns the LCR-Honda in front of Rossi, Smith and Redding.