Vinales tops final test day, Marquez back on 2019 bike

Honda's troubles this pre-season have been well-documented, with both LCR rider Cal Crutchlow and world champion Marquez – who is also riding below full fitness – having been critical of the new RC213V's poor turning.

With little progress seemingly being made in Qatar, Honda took one of Takaaki Nakagami's year-old bike's from his side of the LCR garage for Marquez to try.

Though it's unclear what bike he used to set his best time, Marquez ended the test seventh with a 1m54.145s lap – 0.090 seconds ahead of 2019 Honda-mounted Nakagami.

Sepang test pacesetter and Sunday's fastest man in Qatar Fabio Quartararo was first out on track, and set the early pace with a 1m56.255s before eventually improving to a 1m55.116s.

This stood for well over an hour, before the Petronas SRT Yamaha rider improved on his benchmark with a 1m54.953s.

With around three and a half hours of running remaining, Vinales deposed Quartararo with a 1m54.953s as he continued to refine the 2020 YZR-M1's set-up.

As the session tipped into its final two hours, the sister Petronas bike of Franco Morbidelli set the first 1m53s lap of the test with a 1m53.891s, while teammate Quartararo suffered a technical issue and stopped at Turn 11 around about the same time.

Vinales had one last stab at the timesheets in the closing stages, and emerged fastest of all with a 1m53.858s to solidify his status as pre-season favourite for victory in the first race in Qatar next month.

Morbidelli made it a Yamaha 1-2, while Suzuki's Alex Rins edged ahead of Quartararo and Pramac Ducati's Jack Miller.

Joan Mir was sixth on the sister Suzuki, with Marquez, Nakagami, an impressive Brad Binder on the KTM, and Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso rounding out the top 10.

Valentino Rossi ended the day 0.474s off his teammate in 12th, but suffered a small crash in the latter stages which interrupted his run plan.

Aleix Espargaro was 13th on the Aprilia, beating KTM-mounted brother Pol and the Avintia Ducati of Tito Rabat.

Crutchlow, riding sore after his crash on Sunday, made a significant improvement in laptime to a 1m54.830s on Monday – but was still only quick enough for 18th.

Pos	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Maverick Vinales	Yamaha	1:53.858		84
2	Franco Morbidelli	Petronas Yamaha	1:53.891	+0.033	52
3	Alex Rins	Suzuki	1:54.068	+0.210	40
4	Fabio Quartararo	Petronas Yamaha	1:54.077	+0.219	58
5	Jack Miller	Pramac Racing	1:54.105	+0.247	69
6	Joan Mir	Suzuki	1:54.129	+0.271	42
7	Marc Marquez	Honda	1:54.149	+0.291	61
8	Takaaki Nakagami	LCR Honda	1:54.239	+0.381	40
9	Brad Binder	KTM	1:54.283	+0.425	58
10	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1:54.312	+0.454	55
11	Francesco Bagnaia	Pramac Racing	1:54.326	+0.468	55
12	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1:54.332	+0.474	47
13	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	1:54.432	+0.574	56
14	Pol Espargaro	KTM	1:54.623	+0.765	49
15	Tito Rabat	Avintia Ducati	1:54.674	+0.816	56
16	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1:54.752	+0.894	56
17	Johann Zarco	Avintia Ducati	1:54.760	+0.902	66
18	Cal Crutchlow	LCR Honda	1:54.830	+0.972	70
19	Miguel Oliveira	Tech3 KTM	1:55.008	+1.150	48
20	Iker Lecuona	Tech3 KTM	1:55.301	+1.443	40
21	Alex Marquez	Honda	1:55.519	+1.661	47
22	Bradley Smith	Aprilia	1:55.916	+2.058	55

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Series	MotoGP
Event	Qatar February testing
Author	Lewis Duncan

Vinales tops final test day, Marquez back on 2019 bike

Maverick Vinales concluded MotoGP pre-season testing in Qatar fastest of all, as Honda appeared to hit a crisis point after Marc Marquez reverted to a 2019-spec bike.

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