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Vinales leads Yamaha 1-2-3 on Day 2 of Qatar testing

Maverick Vinales finished the second MotoGP test day in Qatar on top, with teammate Valentino Rossi and rookie Jonas Folger completing an all-Yamaha top three.

Maverick Viñales, Yamaha Factory Racing

Maverick Viñales, Yamaha Factory Racing

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Maverick Viñales, Yamaha Factory Racing
Maverick Viñales, Yamaha Factory Racing
Maverick Viñales, Yamaha Factory Racing
Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing
Jonas Folger, Monster Yamaha Tech 3
Cal Crutchlow, Team LCR Honda
Aleix Espargaro, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini

Yamaha rider Vinales, who was fastest in previous pre-season tests at Sepang and Phillip Island, took first from early leader Marc Marquez at around halfway point of the session.

He then lowered his own benchmark, his time of 1m54.455s beating Andrea Dovizioso's top time from yesterday by nearly four tenths.

Folger, of Yamaha privateer team Tech 3, continued his impressive showing by jumping up to second around the same time, but he ended up being demoted by factory rider Rossi.

Rossi, who had a crash earlier in the session, ended up 0.277s off his teammate's pace, with Folger making up the top three as the last rider within the 1m54s range.

LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow was best of the rest in fourth, the Briton missing out on a chance to improve during the final hour after crashing at the end of his flyer.

Aleix Espargaro, another rider to fall, brought his Aprilia into the top five, with Marquez ending up in sixth after failing to improve on his earlier benchmark time.

Alvaro Bautista (Aspar) was the fastest Ducati in seventh, beating factory rider Jorge Lorenzo by less than a tenth.

The duo, who both also crashed early in the session, were followed by another Ducati of Scott Redding (Pramac) and Tech 3's Johann Zarco.

Karel Abraham continued to impress in his 2015-spec Ducati by ending up less than a second off the pace in 11th.

Andrea Iannone was the top Suzuki in 12th, just ahead of his former teammate and Day 1's pacesetter Dovizioso, who tried Ducati's new fairing during the day.

Iannone was one of the crashers, with Bradley Smith (KTM), Danilo Petrucci (Pramac) and Jack Miller (Marc VDS) also among those to be involved in incidents.

Similarly to yesterday, KTM had a low-key session, with its three riders ending up in the final three spots in the classification.

Day 2 results

Pos. Rider Team Time Gap
1 Maverick Vinales Yamaha 1:54.455  
2 Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1:54.732 0.277
3 Jonas Folger Yamaha 1:54.917 0.462
4 Cal Crutchlow Honda 1:55.032 0.577
5 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 1:55.121 0.666
6 Marc Marquez Honda 1:55.196 0.741
7 Alvaro Bautista Ducati 1:55.245 0.790
8 Jorge Lorenzo Ducati 1:55.344 0.889
9 Scott Redding Ducati 1:55.353 0.898
10 Johann Zarco Yamaha 1:55.354 0.899
11 Karel Abraham Ducati 1:55.420 0.965
12 Andrea Iannone Suzuki 1:55.545 1.090
13 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 1:55.583 1.128
14 Danilo Petrucci Ducati 1:55.680 1.225
15 Loris Baz Ducati 1:55.808 1.353
16 Dani Pedrosa Honda 1:55.875 1.420
17 Alex Rins Suzuki 1:56.110 1.655
18 Tito Rabat Honda 1:56.214 1.759
19 Jack Miller Honda 1:56.251 1.796
20 Sam Lowes Aprilia 1:56.276 1.821
21 Pol Espargaro KTM 1:56.648 2.193
22 Bradley Smith KTM 1:57.267 2.812
23 Mika Kallio KTM 1:57.688 3.233

 

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