Lowes fastest in Qatar as Moto2 testing ends

British rider Lowes, who will be stepping up to MotoGP in 2017 with Aprilia, topped the timesheets in the ninth and final session at Losail aboard his Gresini-run Kalex with a 1m59.405s.

That was enough to depose Interwetten rider Luthi, whose best time was set on Sunday's penultimate session, by 0.203s in the final reckoning. The Swiss rider had also set the pace on the second day.

Jonas Folger (Intact Kalex) was second quickest behind Lowes in the final session, albeit missed on overhauling Luthi for the second best time overall by 0.044s.

Pons rider Alex Rins set the pace on the opening day of the test, but slumped to fourth in the final reckoning, just 0.008s clear of Forward Racing's Lorenzo Baldassarri.

Honda Team Asia rider Takaaki Nakagami completed the top half-dozen, marginally ahead of the second Intact bike of Sandro Cortese and reigning champion Johann Zarco (Ajo Kalex), the last man within a second of pacesetter Lowes.

Marc VDS riders Alex Marquez and Franco Morbidelli completed the Top 10, the latter just pushing Moto3 champion Danny Kent (Leopard Kalex) to 11th.

Simone Corsi (Speed Up) was the best of the non-Kalex riders in 12th place.

Combined testing times (Top 10):

Pos.	Rider	Bike	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3
1	Sam Lowes	Kalex	2m00.084s	1m59.926s	1m59.405s
2	Thomas Luthi	Kalex	2m00.636s	1m59.680s	1m59.608s
3	Jonas Folger	Kalex	2m00.266s	1m59.806s	1m59.652s
4	Alex Rins	Kalex	2m00.071s	2m00.079s	1m59.762s
5	Lorenzo Baldassarri	Kalex	2m01.097s	2m00.519s	1m59.770s
6	Takaaki Nakagami	Kalex	2m00.131s	1m59.933s	1m59.815s
7	Sandro Cortese	Kalex	2m01.487s	2m00.797s	1m59.927s
8	Johann Zarco	Kalex	2m00.542s	2m00.296s	1m59.979s
9	Alex Marquez	Kalex	2m01.125s	2m00.764s	2m00.129s
10	Franco Morbidelli	Kalex	2m00.657s	2m00.585s	2m00.234s