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Raajiv Tripathi
DOHA
Movistar Yamaha's Maverick Vinales carried his red hot pre-season form into the first Free Practice ahead of the Grand Prix of Qatar, the lung-opener of the 2017 MotoGP season, and fired the first salvo at the dazzling Losail International Circuit on Thursday.
The 22-year-old Spaniard, who took up the seat vacated by three-time world champion Jorge Lorenzo, was a bit slower than reigning world champion Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa of Repsol Honda.
But right after his third full-fledged lap, Vinales began to challenge the Repsol Honda star pair. His first flying lap of 1:55.923 came off his sixth circuit of the 5.38-km track. And then he lowered it further with another power-packed 1:55.668.
After exiting for his garage for the second time, Vinales was the first rider to have clocked a sub-1:55 lap when he produced a 1:54.739 to beat Lorenzo's circuit record of 1:54.927.
But not fully satisfied with it, he picked further pace and improved it by more than four-tenths of a second (1:54.316) a happy pit-box team.
Marquez went to the pit-box for a second time, after 12 laps. He followed his 1:55.209 with a 1:54.912 in the 17th lap, before going off the track.
His teammate Pedrosa, who had also showed good pace during the winter testing, lived up to expectations. Consistently, the 'Baby Samurai' lapped at 1:56 and 1:55. Towards the end of the session, he managed to shave nearly five-tenths off his best to post 1:55.210.
Only Marquez and Pedrosa were able to record their quickest laps within a second of the leader, which promises further eventful free practice actions at Losail ahead of the Sunday's first race.
Jonas Folger was the fastest rookie as the Monster Yamaha Tech 3's rider grabbed the fourth spot on the time-sheets at 1:55.587.
Folger and Lorenzo battled for the spot in the last lap of the session but it was the German, who had the last laugh. Lorenzo, making the Ducati bow, was fifth, getting only 0.020 slower than Folger.
Reale Avintia Racing's Loriz Baz got the only second Ducati into the fastest 10. He posted his fastest 1:55.624 to beat LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow, who had to face some mechanical issues but bounced back to land the P7.
Four-time Qatar race winner Valentino Rossi fell to the ninth spot after showing some early pace. The seven-time Premier Class world champion Rossi was beaten by merely 0.007 of a second by Monster Yamaha Tech 3's Johann Zarco.
Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) emerged the 10th fastest with 1:55.872, which he got in the 14th out of 15 laps.
Sam Lowes (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini), Jack Miller (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) and Karel Abraham (Pull & Bear Aspar Team) failed to control their machines and slipped. However, all of them are OK and will resume the second FP on Friday at 6 pm.
