Practice report

Moto3 Losail

Qatar Moto3: Fernandez fastest in Friday practice

KTM Ajo’s Raul Fernandez led the opening day of running for the 2020 Moto3 season, after surging to top spot late on in FP2 for the Qatar Grand Prix.

Lewis Duncan

Edited: Mar 7, 2020, 5:01 AM

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Raúl Fernández, Red Bull KTM Ajo

The coronavirus outbreak has led to the Qatari government imposing new travel and quarantine measures, which meant the opening round of the year has had to go ahead without MotoGP on the bill.

The Moto3 field was first out on track on Friday at Losail, with last year’s Valencia Grand Prix winner Sergio Garcia guiding his Estrella Galicia 0,0 Honda to the top of the pile late on with a 2m05.407s lap.

One-time grand prix winner Tatsuki Suzuki shadowed him at the end of the 40-minute outing aboard the SIC58 Squadra Corse Honda, while Alonso Lopez rounded out the top three in his first official session with the Max Racing Husqvarna squad.

VR46 rider Andrea Migno took the ignominious honour of becoming the first crasher of 2020 when he tipped off at Turn 11 in the early stages. Albert Arenas (Aspar KTM) was the other faller in FP1 at Turn 16.

Fernandez was a low-key 15th in the first session, but went to the top of the pile at the start of the FP2 with a 2m05.743s.

His teammate Kaito Toba – who has switched from Honda Team Asia this season – would set the best time of the day with around 17 minutes to go with a 2m04.988s.

This was usurped by former teammate Ai Ogura (Team Asia) in the closing stages with a 2m04.698s, though Fernandez would resume control on his final attempt with a 2m04.577s.

Darryn Binder – younger brother of factory KTM MotoGP rider Brad – was second overall on his CIP KTM, with FP1 pacesetter Garcia completing the top three on combined times.

Ogura was shuffled back to fourth after the final salvo, with Toba, Arbolino, Migno, Leopard Honda’s new signing Jaume Masia, the second Max Racing bike of Romano Fenati and rookie Deniz Oncu rounding out the top 10 for Moto3 debutant team Tech 3.

After suffering in injury in the pre-season, SIC58’s Niccolo Antonelli will sit out this weekend’s action.

FP2 results:

Cla # Rider Bike Time Gap 1 25 Spain Raúl Fernández
KTM 2'04.577 2 40 South Africa Darryn Binder
KTM 2'04.698 0.121 3 11 Spain Sergio García
Honda 2'04.723 0.146 4 79 Japan Ai Ogura
Honda 2'04.922 0.345 5 27 Japan Kaito Toba
KTM 2'04.988 0.411 6 14 Italy Tony Arbolino
Honda 2'05.227 0.650 7 16 Italy Andrea Migno
KTM 2'05.287 0.710 8 5 Spain Jaume Masia
Honda 2'05.332 0.755 9 55 Italy Romano Fenati
Husqvarna 2'05.348 0.771 10 53 Turkey Deniz Öncü
KTM 2'05.355 0.778 11 17 United Kingdom John McPhee
Honda 2'05.383 0.806 12 13 Italy Celestino Vietti Ramus
KTM 2'05.502 0.925 13 92 Japan Yuki Kunii
Honda 2'05.587 1.010 14 99 Carlos Tatay
KTM 2'05.598 1.021 15 82 Italy Stefano Nepa
KTM 2'05.612 1.035 16 2 Argentina Gabriel Rodrigo
Honda 2'05.622 1.045 17 75 Spain Albert Arenas
KTM 2'05.668 1.091 18 24 Japan Tatsuki Suzuki
Honda 2'05.758 1.181 19 12 Czech Republic Filip Salač
Honda 2'05.765 1.188 20 52 Spain Jeremy Alcoba
Honda 2'05.779 1.202 21 7 Italy Dennis Foggia
Honda 2'05.862 1.285 22 21 Spain Alonso López
Husqvarna 2'06.024 1.447 23 6 Japan Ryusei Yamanaka
Honda 2'06.086 1.509 24 89 Malaysia Khairul Idham Pawi
Honda 2'06.117 1.540 25 71 Japan Ayumu Sasaki
KTM 2'06.270 1.693 26 9 Italy Davide Pizzoli
KTM 2'06.295 1.718 27 73 Austria Maximilian Kofler
KTM 2'06.981 2.404 28 50 Jason Dupasquier
KTM 2'07.268 2.691 29 54 Italy Riccardo Rossi
KTM 2'07.374 2.797 30 60 Dirk Geiger
KTM 2'07.713 3.136 31 20 Spain Jose Garcia
Honda 2'08.302 3.725 View full results

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