Yamahas one-two-three on penultimate day of MotoGP pre-season

Maverick Viñales has led a Yamaha sweep of the top three on the second day of MotoGP’s second and final official pre-season test at Qatar.

Viñales clocked a late 1:53.244s to just beat Petronas Yamaha SRT’s Franco Morbidelli’s 1:53.323s, with Fabio Quartararo third on a 1:53.398s on the other Monster Energy Yamaha entry.

Francesco Bagnaia ended up fourth while fellow Ducati Lenovo Team rider Jack Miller still holds the fastest lap on the combined timesheets despite being 11th-fastest on the day.

Bagnaia set his personal best, a 1:53.444s, with a little under two hours left, before completing a race simulation with Ducati’s new aero fairing.

That time was good enough to put the Italian on top, until Quartararo knocked him off inside the final half-hour.

Viñales, who had three M1s at his disposal, put in an even later flyer to usurp his new team-mate, while SRT’s Valentino Rossi finished eighth with his fastest lap of pre-season so far, a 1:53.993s.

Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) wound up fifth on a 1:53.640s, from Suzuki Ecstar duo Joan Mir and Alex Rins.

Pramac Racing’s Johann Zarco rode his Ducati to ninth-fastest and an unofficial top speed record of 357.69km/h, while Pol Espargaro (Repsol Honda) rounded out the top 10.

Fresh off an unofficial lap record on the day prior, Miller was off the pace but had focused on race runs, one of which spanned 21 complete laps.

Stefan Bradl shook off neck soreness from a crash 24 hours earlier to notch up 45 laps, during which he tried out a new fairing for Honda, and put #6 into 13th on the timesheet.

The German did crash again, and Pol Espargaro had his first spill for Repsol Honda, but worse befell the man whom the latter replaced at the factory team, Alex Marquez.

The latter, 17th-quickest on the day, suffered a small metacarpal fracture in his right foot in a Turn 9 highside on his Castrol LCR Honda.

Others to crash were Aleix Espargaro, fellow Aprilia rider Lorenzo Savadori, Iker Lecuona (Tech3 KTM), and Jorge Martin, although they were all OK.

The latter was also top rookie in 14th position on his Pramac Ducati, while Red Bull KTM’s Brad Binder was best of the Austrian factory’s riders with a 1:54.691s which left him 16th.

The final day of official pre-season testing kicks off late tonight (AEDT).

Day 2: Losail Official Test 2

Pos	Num	Rider	Nat	Team	Bike	Fastest lap		Gap 1st/Prev
1	12	Maverick VIÑALES	ESP	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	1:53.244	58/58
2	21	Franco MORBIDELLI	ITA	Petronas Yamaha SRT	Yamaha	1:53.323	62/62	0.079/0.079
3	20	Fabio QUARTARARO	FRA	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	1:53.398	48/52	0.154/0.075
4	63	Francesco BAGNAIA	ITA	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati	1:53.444	37/53	0.200/0.046
5	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	ESP	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	1:53.640	42/56	0.396/0.196
6	36	Joan MIR	ESP	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	1:53.827	19/37	0.583/0.187
7	42	Alex RINS	ESP	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	1:53.860	43/44	0.616/0.033
8	46	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Petronas Yamaha SRT	Yamaha	1:53.993	38/52	0.749/0.133
9	5	Johann ZARCO	FRA	Pramac Racing	Ducati	1:54.056	53/71	0.812/0.063
10	44	Pol ESPARGARO	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	1:54.103	22/65	0.859/0.047
11	43	Jack MILLER	AUS	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati	1:54.347	58/58	1.103/0.244
12	30	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	JPN	LCR Honda IDEMITSU	Honda	1:54.348	52/52	1.104/0.001
13	6	Stefan BRADL	GER	Honda Test Team	Honda	1:54.427	32/45	1.183/0.079
14	89	Jorge MARTIN	ESP	Pramac Racing	Ducati	1:54.483	29/42	1.239/0.056
15	23	Enea BASTIANINI	ITA	Avintia Esponsorama	Ducati	1:54.505	22/38	1.261/0.022
16	33	Brad BINDER	RSA	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	1:54.691	53/56	1.447/0.186
17	73	Alex MARQUEZ	ESP	LCR Honda CASTROL	Honda	1:54.692	36/36	1.448/0.001
18	88	Miguel OLIVEIRA	POR	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	1:54.735	48/48	1.491/0.043
19	9	Danilo PETRUCCI	ITA	Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing	KTM	1:54.895	49/49	1.651/0.160
20	10	Luca MARINI	ITA	SKY VR46 Avintia	Ducati	1:55.022	24/53	1.778/0.127
21	81	Yamaha TEST1		Yamaha Test Team	Yamaha	1:55.080	38/40	1.836/0.058
22	27	Iker LECUONA	ESP	Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing	KTM	1:55.195	24/40	1.951/0.115
23	32	Lorenzo SAVADORI	ITA	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	1:55.754	25/40	2.510/0.559
24	83	Yamaha TEST3		Yamaha Test Team	Yamaha	1:55.831	11/12	2.587/0.077
25	50	Sylvain GUINTOLI	FRA	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	1:56.006	41/57	2.762/0.175
26	26	Dani PEDROSA	ESP	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	1:56.706	29/29	3.462/0.700
27	51	Michele PIRRO	ITA	Ducati Test Team	Ducati	1:56.732	24/24	3.488/0.026
28	82	Yamaha TEST2		Yamaha Test Team	Yamaha	1:57.409	34/53	4.165/0.677
29	85	Takuya TSUDA	JPN	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	1:58.437	24/24	5.193/1.028