PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez led the way in the first MotoGP practice session of 2015 at Losail International Circuit in Qatar. Marquez’ fast time of 1:55.281 was just .128 of a second shy of Casey Stoner’s circuit lap record from 2008, and .076 of a second better than teammate Dani Pedrosa.
“Today went pretty well,” Marquez said. “It is always important to make a good start to the weekend. I felt good and the feeling was similar to that which we had in pre-season testing, although maybe there was a little less grip. We tried some things that we had prepared after the test and this went well. Tomorrow we will try to keep progressing, but we can’t forget that the track surface here will improve a lot and the times will come down.”
Completing the provisional front row was Team Suzukis Ecstar’s Aleix Espargaro, trailing Marquez by .404 of second—an impressive start for the older Espargaro brother and his new team.
“It’s been a positive day,” Espargaro. “I found a lot of confidence with the hard tire, but I’m very satisfied with my single lap with a soft one, since I’m up with the top riders. We wanted to recover some of the time we lost in the last test here in Qatar so we focused on finalizing traction control and electronics. We had very important feedback that gives us many indications for the work we need to do next. Tomorrow I need to try a long run to evaluate the situation in terms of race-pace, but for the moment the work-plan is going smoothly.”
Just shy of Espargaro was Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo, who was one of many complaining of grip issues. In fifth was CWM LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow ahead of the top-finishing Ducati—Pramac Racing’s Danilo Petrucci.
As for the Factory Ducati’s, both Andreas—Dovizioso and Iannone—were unable to find the same feel that had them topping the time sheets at the pre-season test. The pair attributed that to the different track conditions. Dovizioso fared better in seventh, while Iannone rounded out the top 10.
Petrucci’s teammate Yonny Hernandez was eighth, ahead of Valentino Rossi on the other Movistar Yamaha.
American Nicky Hayden ended the session 21st, 1.771 seconds off of Marquez’ top time.
2015 MotoGP Qatar FP1 Results
1. Marc Marquez (Honda) 1:55.281
2. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 1:55.357
3. Aleix Espargaro (Suzuki) 1:55.685
4. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 1:55.698
5. Cal Crutchlow (Honda) 1:55.818
6. Danilo Petrucci (Ducati) 1:55.939
7. Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) 1:55.980
8. Yonny Hernandez (Ducati) 1:56.139
9. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1:56.162
10. Andrea Iannone (Ducati) 1:56.315
