MotoGP Qatar, Free Practice 1: Aleix Espargarò takes the Open to the top, Rossi is seventh
Andrea Iannone did well in fourth, while Dovizioso and Crutchlow suffered
The riders of the MotoGP class opened the 2014 season with the first round of free practice at the Losail International Circuit, where the 2014 world championship will start on Sunday. Under the artificial lights (racing at night) 23 riders took to the track, divided between Factory, Open and what has been defined as Factory 2, with which the Ducatis race.
The 45-minute session saw Aleix Espargarò, a Spanish rider from Forward Racing, excel. Rider #41 using a Yamaha FTR Open lapped in 1'55"201 (lap done with extra-soft tyre), a time that allowed him to beat Alvaro Bautista's Honda Factory by 34 thousandths.
Third time for the Yamaha of Bradley Smith's Team Tech 3, preceding the first of the Italian riders, Andrea Iannone of Ducati from Abruzzo. The Team Pramac rider who lapped in 1'55"996 precedes Pol Espargarò (with the second Yamaha of Team Tech 3 and fresh from collarbone surgery) and Dani Pedrosa's Honda Repsol.
Valentino Rossi is seventh, but by more than a second. The Yamaha Factory seems to be having problems here, in fact Jorge Lorenzo also struggled a lot, shaking his head several times and finishing in ninth position.
The returning Marc Marquez (reigning champion) is eleventh and immediately behind the Honda Open of Nicky Hayden, rider of Team Aspar. The Ducatis of Crutchlow and Dovizioso are in difficulty, finishing the tests in thirteenth and fourteenth position, almost two seconds behind. In front of them is the Honda of Stefan Bradl, German rider of Team LCR. Danilo Petrucci, with the ART of Iodaracing, instead finished in 21st position, over 4 seconds behind.
Of note in the opening minutes was the fall of Yonny Hernandez, who suffered bruises on his knee and shoulder.
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MotoGp Free Practice 1 Losail - Qatar GP - Times
| Pos | Num | Rider | Motorcycle | Team | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 89 | George Martin | First Pramac Racing | 1:52.624 | ||
| 2 | 41 | Alex Espargaro | aprilia-racing | 1:52.671 | +0.047 | |
| 3 | 31 | Peter Acosta | Red Bull Gasgas Tech3 | 1:52.695 | +0.071 | |
| 4 | 93 | Marc Marquez | Gresini Racing MotoGP | 1:52.801 | +0.177 | |
| 5 | 33 | Brad Binder | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 1:52.889 | +0.265 | |
| 6 | 5 | Johann zarco | Lcr Honda | 1:52.927 | +0.303 | |
| 7 | 23 | Enea Bastianini | DucatiLenovoTeam | 1:52.950 | +0.326 | |
| 8 | 49 | Fabio DiGiannantonio | Pertamina Enduro Vr46 Racing Team | 1:52.987 | +0.363 | |
| 9 | 43 | Jack Miller | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 1:53.031 | +0.407 | |
| 10 | 1 | Francis Bagnaia | DucatiLenovoTeam | 1:53.221 | +0.597 | |
| 11 | 73 | Alex Marquez | Gresini Racing MotoGP | 1:53.250 | +0.626 | |
| 12 | 88 | Miguel Oliveira | Trackhouse Racing | 1:53.338 | +0.714 | |
| 13 | 12 | Maverick Vinales | aprilia-racing | 1:53.351 | +0.727 | |
| 14 | 25 | Raul fernandez | Trackhouse Racing | 1:53.380 | +0.756 | |
| 15 | 42 | alex rins | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | 1:53.407 | +0.783 | |
| 16 | 36 | Joan mir | Repsol Honda Team | 1:53.435 | +0.811 | |
| 17 | 10 | Luca marini | Repsol Honda Team | 1:53.608 | +0.984 | |
| 18 | 72 | Marco Bezzecchi | Pertamina Enduro Vr46 Racing Team | 1:53.626 | +1.002 | |
| 19 | 20 | fabio quartararo | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | 1:53.837 | +1.213 | |
| 20 | 37 | Augusto Fernandez | Red Bull Gasgas Tech3 | 1:53.847 | +1.223 | |
| 21 | 30 | Takaaki Nakagami | Lcr Honda | 1:53.863 | +1.239 | |
| 22 | 21 | Franco Morbidelli | First Pramac Racing | 1:54.749 | +2.125 | |
Losail - Qatar GP - Free Practice 1 results
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For now values staggered from the last test, Pedrosa, Marquez, Rossi, Lorenzo, Dovizioso and Crutchlow had not ridden, because a few days earlier they were in Australia at Phillip Island.
This is why the others who had already tried are still so far ahead, with 3 days they have already put many things in place, especially those like Bautista, Smith, Espargarò P, who have already understood with 20 liters where you can give fuel and power you have to cut it .
Certainly Iannone's Ducati was set up very well on the straight, easily keeping up with the Official Honda, certainly Iannone has a nice advantage on the set up for now.
Herndandez has already tasted the asphalt, the GP13 gate hasn't changed much, more and more advanced than the GP11 and GP12 but with the same ability to knock the riders to the ground at the entrance to the bend, the 24 liters and the soft tire don't give this great advantage over that motorbike. The GP14 on the other hand seems better Iannone held Bautista.
The TechIII riders who already had run-in setups seemed to me to have a much grumpier Yamaha, more similar to the 2013 Honda, while Bautista's Honda seemed much more similar to a Yamaha due to its stability.
As far as the HRC and Yamaha officials are concerned, it's too early to draw conclusions, they still set an average time and don't have the test from 2 weeks ago behind them on this circuit, while Aleix Espargaro' mounted a Soft tire to set the time, maybe new.
…if you write so much for FP1 I expect a full HTML page at the end of the race!
wait a minute :) oh well it's the first FP of the season, there are many things to say, I wrote the bare minimum :)
I haven't even taken a look at the pace times, I think that until the end of FP3, there will still be a difference between the factory guys who didn't lap here 2 weeks ago and those who instead did a lot more laps.
We then need to understand how Aleix Espargaro will handle the tire. His times are good for now to stay with the leaders, we'll see how it goes on Sunday.
…I may be wrong but I see the entire factory front row…
Maybe it depends on how much the extra soft makes, they seemed to slow down the times in the last test, and now the track is certainly a little slower, it depends on how much grip they gain and what problems they manage to solve, but the extra soft can be a big plus if the track doesn't improve significantly.
They talk a lot about this soft tire but what about Bautista? He may have tried harder but he doesn't have the soft tire...Is it everyone else who needs to wake up or not? Let's see in the next tests if they will find the right settings.