Rins fastest as Quartararo eighth in Qatar practice

Alex Rins topped the timesheets through the first two practice sessions on Friday at the MotoGP season-opening Grand Prix of Qatar as reigning champion Fabio Quartararo struggled to hit top gear.
Suzuki’s Rins was 0.035 seconds faster at the Losail International circuit than six-time world champion Marc Marquez, whose past two seasons have been derailed by injuries.
Rins’ teammate Joan Mir, winner of the 2020 title, posted the third best time while Frenchman Quartararo could only manage eighth on his Yamaha. The second 45-minute session took place under floodlights, which he is a representative conditions for tomorrow’s race.
With the temperatures also cooler, lap time improvements on the combined order were quick to come in as the opening moment ticked away in FP2. Two further sessions will be held today, the first in the afternoon heat, before qualifying begins at 6pm, the same time as tomorrow’s race.
“We have extra confidence, Suzuki worked quite well,” Rins said yesterday.
“But Suzuki needs to keep working. They did a good job on the engine side, but if they relax a little bit we are doomed. But today overall was quite good, I tried to follow someone on the straight and there was a good feeling. I was holding the slipstream, so at least we can breathe on the straight. But let’s see in the race, I hope to improve on that side,” the Spaniard added.
Last year’s championship runner-up Francesco Bagnaia moved up to 10th in the day’s second session after crashing during the first run, when South Africa Brad Binder of KTM surprisingly set the pace. With the floodlights beaming, the premier class got straight to work and the lap times fell.
Marquez sat top before Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) took over as the riders got some valuable laps.
With 20 minutes to go, the time attacks started. Pol Espargaro (Repsol Honda Team) climbed to the summit as Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) crashed unhurt at Turn 1.
Pol Espargaro went even faster on his second flying lap on the soft tyres, his gap was up to 0.4s, but a whole heap of rapid laps were about to be posted.
The first 1:53 lap was posted by Mir with 13 minutes to go.
That was swiftly beaten by Marquez, the new benchmark was a 1:53.711, but that time didn’t stand as the fastest for long either – Rins went 0.174s clear.
Jorge Martin (Pramac Racing) closed the gap with two minutes to go before Mir made it a Suzuki 1-2, but Marc Marquez returned to P1 with a minute left on the clock.
Again, though, Rins ensured Marc Marquez didn’t spend long at the top, and that’s how it ended. Rins is the rider to beat heading into Day 2 from Marquez and Mir.
For the most part, it had been a quiet day for the Ducatis but Martin was P4 from yesterday’s running, the 2021 Rookie of the Year ahead of fastest Yamaha Franco Morbidelli (Monster Energy Yamaha) – a late time saw the Italian leap up the timesheets. Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team) was sixth ahead of qualifying day in the desert, as Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) grabbed P7 despite getting in a bit of a tangle with teammate Maverick Vinales on his final flying effort.
Quartararo was four tenths off the pace in P8, just ahead of Pol Espargaro in ninth and Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) in tenth – the Italian sneaking into the top 10 after a crash at Turn 6 in FP1. 0.8s splits the top 15 down to FP1 pacesetter Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), as the riders outside the top 10 now face an uphill battle to try and earn an automatic Q2 place in the warmer, day time conditions. The Qatar MotoGP is
the first of a record 21 races this season, which ends on November 6 in Valencia.
It will be the first this century without the recently retired Valentino Rossi, who announced yesterday the birth of his first child, a daughter named Giulietta.

Combined Top 10 practice times
1. Alex Rins (ESP/Suzuki) 1:53.432, 2. Marc Marquez (ESP/Honda) at 0.035sec, 3. Joan Mir (ESP/Suzuki) 0.147, 4. Jorge Martin (ESP/Ducati-Pramac) 0.220, 5. Franco Morbidelli (ITA/Yamaha) 0.413, 6. Jack Miller (AUS/Ducati) 0.438, 7. Aleix Espargaro (ESP/Aprilia) 0.454, 8. Fabio Quartararo (FRA/Yamaha) 0.474, 9. Pol Espargaro (ESP/Honda) 0.531, 10. Francesco Bagnaia (ITA/Ducati) 0.539