So the final test day at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar ended with Miller closing first. Not too shabby. With his 1:53.183 he burned the fasted lap time into the tarmac of Losail so far.
And as you can see Ducati is having its 3 Pro riders within the Top10. The 3 rookies Jorge Martin (Pramac Racing), Enea Bastianini (Avintia Esponsorama Racing) and Luca Marini (SKY VR46 Avintia) did well too so let's see if Ducati is starting off the season in the first race like they did in the tests.
1. Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team) – 1:53.183
2. Maverick Viñales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) + 0.061
3. Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) + 0.080
4. Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha SRT) + 0.140
5. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) + 0.261
6. Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) + 0.457
7. Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) + 0.644
8. Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) + 0.677
9. Johann Zarco (Pramac Racing) + 0.716
10. Pol Espargaro (Repsol Honda Team) + 0.716
Yamaha with Maverick Viñales, Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli did stand their grounds.
All riders are confident and with the new chassis that will be implemented, at least it seems like for now, they might close the top speed gaps to Ducati and Honda.
Valentino Rossi (Petronas Yamaha SRT) rounded up the tests with his best lap time ever at Losail of 1:53.993.🥳
Aprilia will start with place 6 on the sheet. It is been reported that they will start the season with a new engine, chassis, two aero designs and they also have their first carbon swingarm. The exhausts changed and so is the so called ‘salad box’, the little box sitting below the tail unit.
Also there will be a new front holeshot device many will use and with Aprilia it seemed to work pretty decent.
Suzuki is optimistic but not as enthusiastic going into the first GP this year. Though Joan Mir is claiming that they are competitive with the other teams, Losail wasn't known to be Suzuki land.
Next Honda. What's up with Marquez and how will Pol Espargaro stand his grounds with Honda this year?
Tests have been promising for Pol, he seems to adjust well with the new bike under his butt.
Alex Marquez was reported having a crash and an injured foot but will be riding in Qatar.
His brother and 8 time World champion Marc Marquez is expected to roll out this season again. We will see when.
KTM wasn't doing very well so far, Losail isn't their stomping grounds either.
Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) finished 16 followed by Brad Binder.
Danilo Petrucci, riding with KTM this year, and his teammate Iker Lecuona are positive about KTMs development, even though there is still a lot of work to do for them.
Now the official tests are over and us fans are looking forward to the Barwa Grand Prix of Qatar 26-28 March.
I have two weeks left to fix my damn satellite dish but I am also thinking about getting myself and José an early birthday gift by signing up for the MotoGP VideoPass.
You will definitely read about it here lol. Also I want to mention, in case anyone is reading this that I am a new in writing about what I have just been following by passion on TV. So as I'm learning stats and stuff I might get better in commenting on my fav motorsport MotoGP :).
Forza Vale 46
The announcement that made us happy
