The Suzuki pair were separated by a small margin with Alex Rins leading Joan Mir on Day 1 of the Qatar MotoGP test Losail International Circuit.
The twilight MotoGP test at Losail kick-started with Suzuki’s Rins taking the honours on Day 1 with a 1m54.462s as he led teammate Mir by 0.002s after a late improvement. Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales was a further 0.030s from the leader.
Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci also had a late improvement to be fourth as he pushed Petronas SRT Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli to fifth with Honda’s Marc Marquez in sixth ahead of Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi and Petronas SRT’s Fabio Quartararo.
Pramac Racing Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia was ninth as Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro rounded out the Top 10. Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso was 11th as the Italian had a small crash at Turn 8, late in the day as Avintia Ducati’s Johann Zarco was 12th.
Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller slotted in 13th ahead of lead KTM of Pol Espargaro as LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami was 15th with KTM’s Brad Binder 16th and Avintia Ducati’s Tito Rabat 17th, where the South African was leading MotoGP rookie.
Interestingly, Miller and Dovizioso were testing a new ride height system but not Petrucci. Tech 3’s Miguel Oliveira ended up 18th from LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow and Tech 3’s Iker Lecuona in the Top 20. Honda’s Alex Marquez finished 21st.
The Spaniard crashed twice to find himself so far behind as Aprilia test rider Bradley Smith rounded out the 22 runners, where Andrea Iannone will be forced to sit out due to doping ban and is doubtful for the first MotoGP round at the same venue.
Considering the conditions, a lot of MotoGP teams and riders chose not to run at all in the first half of the day as only the likes of Binder, Lecuona, Petrucci, Alex Marquez and few others decided to venture out.
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The 2020 MotoGP unveils:
Aprilia – in test livery