2019 Qatar MotoGP Test: Yamaha’s Vinales by 0.2 Overall (Video)

2019 Qatar MotoGP Test Results

The final preseason test of 2019 MotoGP finished Monday under the lights at Losail International Circuit in Qatar.

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP’s Maverick Vinales was quickest on day one, and lost the top spot on the second day to Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Alex Rins.

But the factory Yamaha YZR-M1 pilot Vinales reclaimed the fastest position Monday during the final day of preseason testing.

Overall Vinales was quickest with a 1:54.208 at Qatar, which hosts the season opener March 10. To put this time into perspective, the fastest lap (across all sessions) at Qatar is a 1:53.680, which was posted by Johann Zarco last season (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing).

In the combined timesheets Vinales finished 0.233 of a second ahead of Petronas Yamaha SRT’s Fabio Quartararo and 0.385 ahead of Rins.

“Honestly, I have been riding really good on the track, I felt like I was going very fast with the amount of grip that the track provided today,” Maverick Vinales says.

“But we need to improve. I don’t have really good grip on the edge, so we need to keep working, especially in that area. On the acceleration side we improved quite a lot since Sepang, and at the moment I’m quite satisfied with what we have in the braking area. My race pace is not bad, I tried ten laps just to understand how the bike is doing, but it was very cold for the medium tires.

“Anyway, I rode quite well, with quite a good rhythm. Maybe I could have pushed a little more. However, we still need to improve for the race. I think we are going to be ready. The race will be very important for us. Our bike has really positive points, but also a few negatives, so we now need to come to a conclusion and see where we can improve.”

The reigning MotoGP Champion, Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez, completed the test fourth overall, 0.405 off the pace and 0.038 ahead of Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP’s Valentino Rossi.

The other Repsol Honda RC213V pilot, Jorge Lorenzo, was sixth, 0.445 behind Vinales Rounding out the top 10 were Petronas Yamaha SRT’s Franco Morbidelli; Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Pol Espargaro; LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami; and Mission Winnow Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci.

Testing is now complete for 2019 MotoGP. The top finishers were as follows:

• Valencia, Maverick Vinales, Yamaha YZR-M1
• Jerez, Takaaki Nakagami, Honda RC213V
• Sepang, Danilo Petrucci, Ducati GP19
• Qatar, Maverick Vinales, Yamaha YZR-M1

Yamaha, which struggled throughout 2018 MotoGP, has the upper hand from pure preseason testing statistics. The question is – can Yamaha carry this momentum into the 19-round season.

2019 Qatar MotoGP Preseason Test Results, Session 3

Pos		Rider	Team	Fastest lap	Lead. Gap	Prev. Gap	Laps	Last lap
1		VIÑALES, Maverick	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	1:54.208			25 / 50
2		QUARTARARO, Fabio	Petronas Yamaha SRT	1:54.441	0.233	0.233	28 / 48
3		MARQUEZ, Marc	Repsol Honda Team	1:54.613	0.405	0.172	30 / 53
4		ROSSI, Valentino	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	1:54.651	0.443	0.038	35 / 38
5		LORENZO, Jorge	Repsol Honda Team	1:54.653	0.445	0.002	26 / 33
6		MORBIDELLI, Franco	Petronas Yamaha SRT	1:54.660	0.452	0.007	42 / 61
7		ESPARGARO, Pol	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	1:54.770	0.562	0.110	27 / 37
8		NAKAGAMI, Takaaki	LCR Honda IDEMITSU	1:54.789	0.581	0.019	48 / 50
9		PETRUCCI, Danilo	Mission Winnow Ducati	1:54.818	0.610	0.029	19 / 43
10		MILLER, Jack	Alma Pramac Racing	1:54.851	0.643	0.033	47 / 47
11		RINS, Alex	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	1:54.852	0.644	0.001	28 / 41
12		MIR, Joan	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	1:54.997	0.789	0.145	37 / 38
13		BAGNAIA, Francesco	Alma Pramac Racing	1:55.074	0.866	0.077	30 / 47
14		RABAT, Tito	Reale Avintia Racing	1:55.229	1.021	0.155	52 / 66
15		DOVIZIOSO, Andrea	Mission Winnow Ducati	1:55.233	1.025	0.004	32 / 50
16		IANNONE, Andrea	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	1:55.343	1.135	0.110	21 / 39
17		CRUTCHLOW, Cal	LCR Honda CASTROL	1:55.690	1.482	0.347	25 / 39
18		OLIVEIRA, Miguel	Red Bull KTM Tech 3	1:55.773	1.565	0.083	28 / 28
19		ESPARGARO, Aleix	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	1:55.814	1.606	0.041	28 / 54
20		SMITH, Bradley	Aprilia Factory Racing	1:56.072	1.864	0.258	37 / 38
21		ABRAHAM, Karel	Reale Avintia Racing	1:56.121	1.913	0.049	26 / 50
22		ZARCO, Johann	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	1:56.162	1.954	0.041	32 / 42
23		SYAHRIN, Hafizh	Red Bull KTM Tech 3	1:56.371	2.163	0.209	25 / 42