Aprilia leads MotoGP’s first Doha GP practice with Espargaro

Aprilia MotoGP rider Aleix Espargaro led the way in the opening practice session of MotoGP’s second race weekend in Qatar, as Petronas Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli had a problem-filled session.

Morbidelli, who had his Qatar GP destroyed by an apparent holeshot device issue last weekend, received a black-and-orange flag when his Yamaha started spewing smoke out of its exhaust mere minutes into the session.

He returned to the track and soon had a big trip through the gravel at Turn 1, but gathered himself to go top of the timing screens – after Espargaro and Tech3 KTM’s Danilo Petrucci had had spells out front.

Morbidelli set an initial 1m55.125s and then posted a big improvement with a 1m54.774s, which was then immediately chalked off for a track limits violation at Turn 15.

And as he wound up for another go, the smoke appeared again in very similar circumstances and was again followed by a black-and-orange flag that forced him to exit the track.

With Morbidelli sidelined, former Suzuki team-mates Espargaro and Maverick Vinales jumped out ahead, with Espargaro coming just 0.005s off Morbidelli’s cancelled time albeit using a medium rear compared to Morbidelli’s and Vinales’s hard compound.

Suzuki’s current rider Alex Rins ultimately slotted in between Espargaro and Qatar GP winner Vinales via a last-second run on new softs.

Pramac rookie Jorge Martin was the lead Ducati rider in fourth, followed by Morbidelli, Petrucci, Vinales’ team-mate Fabio Quartararo and Suzuki’s reigning champion Joan Mir.

The four Hondas slotted in between ninth and 13th, led by Marc Marquez stand-in Stefan Bradl and with two riders either side of 11th-placed SkyVR46 Ducati rookie Luca Marini.

The co-owner of that SkyVR46 team, Valentino Rossi himself was only 17th, having had several laps cancelled due to track limits.

Johann Zarco propped up the order for Pramac, having fallen off his Ducati at Turn 15 early on.

Practice 1 Results