MotoGP: Dovizioso dominates in the desert

Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso has dominated the opening day of testing in Qatar, topping the test from Maverick Viñales by 0.36 seconds as he dipped under the existing lap record at the Losail circuit.

Making the most of Ducati’s huge top speed and stability under braking at the circuit, the Italian says that setting such a fast lap early on means that the pressure is off him now as they continue to develop the GP17.

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“In this first day of testing at Losail I had a really good feeling with my Desmosedici GP, better than I had expected, and the sensations were positive just like in Malaysia. We tried several different types of interesting set-up, which gave us some important feedback. Today everyone was very quick, but in any case I was able to set my time quite easily. We know we still have to improve certain aspects, but to start the tests in this way helps us a lot for the work that we have to do in the next couple of days.”

Viñales, the fastest man at the previous three pre-season tests in Valencia, Sepang and Phillip Island, was second, completing a busy day of action with the most laps.

Cal Crutchlow was third despite completing only 28 laps. Struggling with a technical problem on both of his LCR Honda RC213V machines, he nonetheless was able to set a fast time at the end of the day’s eight-hour session.

Karel Abraham was the surprise performance of the day in fourth, ahead of the second factory Ducati of Jorge Lorenzo, who led much of the day’s early action. Jonas Folger, Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa rounded out the top ten, while reigning world champion Marc Marquez was a distant eleventh despite being pleased with his progress.

The day saw a number of fallers, headed by Marquez falling twice. Pol Espargaró was also a double faller, while Sam Lowes, Alex Rins and Andrea Iannone also joined them in the gravel but walked away unhurt.

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