Vinales tops first day of Qatar test, Marquez crashes

Reigning champion Marquez's fall occurred at Turn 16, but his crash was a relatively small one, as he was able to return to the pits and ride again later on.

The Honda man led for a short while in the early stages of the six-hour test but soon fell down the order, and was only 10th in the end.

Ducati factory duo Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci spent the most time at the head of the order, the pair only briefly demoted by Vinales and Suzuki's Alex Rins before the final hour of the test began.

Vinales then beat Dovizioso's best time by nearly half a second with an hour left on the clock, with Rins also following suit to move into second.

The Yamaha rider's 1m55.051s remained the benchmark time as the test concluded, 0.108s ahead of Rins.

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A further three tenths back, Dovizioso and Petrucci settled for third and fourth, separated by half a tenth, with Valentino Rossi completing the top five on the second Yamaha.

Avintia Ducati's Tito Rabat continued his strong pre-season form with a sixth place with Fabio Quartararo also impressing in seventh as top rookie aboard the Petronas SRT Yamaha.

Takaaki Nakagami led an otherwise underwhelming day for Honda in eighth as Marquez, Cal Crutchlow and Jorge Lorenzo, all still recovering from injuries, were 10th, 18th and 21st respectively.

Having missed the previous Sepang test due to a training accident, Lorenzo was 2.039s off the pace on his first test outing of the year, and nine tenths slower than teammate Marquez.

Pol Espargaro led KTM's efforts in ninth, while teammate Johann Zarco was a lowly 16th.

Aprilia duo Aleix Espargaro and Andrea Iannone both suffered crashes before taking 12th and 13th respectively, with Franco Morbidelli (Petronas SRT Yamaha) in 14th also having a fall.

Testing times, Day 1:

Pos.	No.	Driver	Bike	Time	Delay	Laps
1	12	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	1'55.051		50
2	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	1'55.159	0.108	48
3	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'55.550	0.499	29
4	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1'55.594	0.543	37
5	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1'55.604	0.553	47
6	53	Tito Rabat	Ducati	1'55.694	0.643	44
7	20	Fabio Quartararo	Yamaha	1'55.772	0.721	49
8	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	1'55.943	0.892	45
9	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	1'56.040	0.989	47
10	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	1'56.167	1.116	34
11	36	Joan Mir	Suzuki	1'56.264	1.213	52
12	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	1'56.358	1.307	34
13	29	Andrea Iannone	Aprilia	1'56.447	1.396	30
14	21	Franco Morbidelli	Yamaha	1'56.511	1.460	47
15	63	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati	1'56.738	1.687	45
16	5	Johann Zarco	KTM	1'56.770	1.719	53
17	88	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	1'56.891	1.840	42
18	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'56.921	1.870	43
19	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	1'56.932	1.881	46
20	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	1'57.053	2.002	39
21	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Honda	1'57.090	2.039	38
22	38	Bradley Smith	Aprilia	1'57.137	2.086	48
23	55	Hafizh Syahrin	KTM	1'57.459	2.408	44