The 2015 season has officially begun in Losail with reigning World Champion, Marc Marquez, ending the first practice session at the top of the time sheets, and teammate Dani Pedrosa just 0.76s behind in second place.
With track conditions surprisingly good on this first day – considering the rain that has fallen in the past week – the MotoGP class were immediately on the pace with Dani setting his fastest time of 1’55.357 on just his third lap, sending him to the top of the classifications. Marc’s second lap placed him second behind Dani and then after a brief modification, Marc went back on track and his fifth lap put him on top of the board with a time of 1’55.281 (just 0.128 off Casey Stoner’s circuit lap record in 2008 – 1’55.153), and remained unbeaten for the remainder of the session.
It was an impressive display from the Repsol Honda riders, who are 0.4s faster than their next opponent (Aleix Espargaro), with a mere second separating 3rd place to 16th.
FP2 will commence tomorrow at 18h00 local time.
Marc Marquez
1ST 1'55.281 [LAP 5/15]
"Today went pretty well. It is always important to make a good start to the weekend. I felt good and the feeling was similar to that which we had in pre-season testing, although maybe there was a little less grip. We tried some things that we had prepared after the test and this went well. Tomorrow we will try to keep progressing, but we can't forget that the track surface here will improve a lot and the times will come down."
Marc Marquez
Dani Pedrosa
2ND 1'55.357 [LAP 3/15]
"We have completed the first session of the year and we have done quite well. Now we are going to work on the bike to in preparation for the coming days. We need to keep taking steps forward as the weekend goes on and keep improving our pace. The track was in quite good condition and we'll see how it evolves over the course of the Grand Prix weekend."
Dani Pedrosa
Results Session
Weather: Dry | Humidity: 71% | Track Temp: 28°C | Air Temp: 23°C
Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Time/Gap
1
MARQUEZ
Marc 93 SPA Repsol Honda Team 1'55.281
2
PEDROSA
Dani 26 SPA Repsol Honda Team 1'55.357
3
ESPARGARO
Aleix 41 SPA Team Suzuki Ecstar 1'55.685
4
LORENZO
Jorge 99 SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 1'55.698
5
CRUTCHLOW
Cal 35 GBR CWM LCR Honda 1'55.818
6
PETRUCCI
Danilo 9 ITA Pramac Racing 1'55.939
7
DOVIZIOSO
Andrea 4 ITA Ducati Team 1'55.980
8
HERNANDEZ
Yonny 68 COL Pramac Racing 1'56.139
9
ROSSI
Valentino 46 ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 1'56.162
10
IANNONE
Andrea 29 ITA