Qatar MotoGP testing: Ducati gets the jump

The factory Ducati team dominated proceedings under the floodlights on the first day of the final preseason test at Qatar on March 14.

With most teams waiting until at least 6:00pm before heading out on track for the conditions to be more reflective of when they will race here in two weeks' time, it took a while for the action to heat up at the 5.4km desert layout.

Ducati said it was bringing a significant update to Qatar, and the GP15 seemed to like the Losail circuit, as Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso led the way from early on. Iannone topped the timesheets with a 1:55.265, 0.7sec off Lorenzo’s pole time from 2015, after being one of the most active riders of the day completing a total of 50 laps. His teammate Dovizioso was less than 0.1 seconds behind in second, making it a one-two for the Italian manufacturer.

Even the Repsol Honda of Marc Marquez could not match the pace of the Ducatis as he ended the day in third (+0.289s), with teammate Dani Pedrosa putting in a late flying lap to finish in fifth as he tried out some different fork settings on his RC213V.

Team Suzuki Ecstar would have been encouraged by the competitiveness of Aleix Espargaro who finished fourth fastest (+0.433s). Suzuki will look to test some updates to the GSX-RR tomorrow. His teammate Maverick Viñales was a further 0.4sec back in 11th having ended the day's testing early after damaging both of his bikes in crashes, luckily without injury.

For the Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team it was a case of continuing to develop its seamless shift gearbox having officially announced it will use it during the season. Jorge Lorenzo finished in sixth (+0.563sec) just 0.1sec ahead of teammate Valentino Rossi in eighth, with the nine-time world champion the first rider to crash earlier on in the day, managing to walk away unhurt.

Sandwiched between them on the timesheets was Cal Crutchlow on the CWM-LCR Honda. The British rider made a big leap forward throughout the day, setting a 1:55.837 as he continued to try and solve the brake issue that was bothering him at the second Sepang test. His Aussie teammate Jack Miller is making progress on his Open spec Honda and was less than two seconds slower than Iannone back in 19th place.

For Miller, it was the first time at the desert track aboard a MotoGP machine, but the circuit holds happy memories for the Aussie after having taken his very first Grand Prix victory there on his Moto3 bike last year. That seemed to boost the Australian’s confidence and he was clearly much happier at the venue than at the previous test in Malaysia, as he set about continuing his adaptation to the Honda RC213V-RS he will campaign in the premier class of MotoGP this year.

“I’m really happy with how the test went today, because we’re not so far away from where we want to be now," said Miller. "We’re inside the two-second barrier, just 1.9 to the front today, but we can’t celebrate yet because this is just testing and we still have a lot of work to do so I can be more comfortable with the bike.

“It definitely feels good though, as we’ve worked hard for the last couple of weeks and I feel I’ve increased my fitness another step and it seems to be paying off so far. So we’ll continue to put in the hard work.”

Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team’s Bradley Smith finished just 0.01s behind Rossi in ninth, while Pol Espargaro could not match his teammate’s pace and finished in 14th. He was another rider to complete 50 laps around the Losail track.

Scott Redding seemingly made some big advances throughout the day as he managed to finish less than a second off the leaders, completing the top 10 in the process on his Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Racing Team Honda.

Karel Abraham was the leading Open class rider in 15th for his AB Motoracing team, just ahead of the Avintia Racing Ducati of Mike De Meglio.

Click here for the full results from day one.

Two days testing still remain.