Vinales fastest, Marquez crashes in Qatar test

Maverick Vinales’ impressive MotoGP pre-season testing form continued after topping the times on the final day of action at Qatar.

The factory Yamaha rider posted a 1:54.330s effort in the last two hours of the session to finish the hit out on top.

Vinales has quickly adapted to his new Yamaha machine after topping the times in the previous pre-season tests at Sepang and Phillip Island.

A flurry of times in the closing stages saw Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso jump to second just 0.033s shy of Vinales.

Another rider to improve late on was Honda’s Dani Pedrosa who slotted into third.

However, it proved to be a challenging day for his team-mate Marc Marquez on the sister machine.

The reigning world champion suffered three crashes while testing different fairing variations.

Despite the interruptions, he managed to clock a time good enough for 10th position.

Ducati’s Jorge Lorenzo proved the early pacesetter as he topped the times while trialling the Italian squad’s latest fairing design.

The encouraging display saw Lorenzo end the day 0.189s adrift in fourth.

Alvaro Bautista put an early crash behind him to finish fifth for Aspar Ducati ahead of the Pramac Ducati of Scott Redding.

The top 10 was rounded out by Jonas Folger (Tech3 Yamaha),Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) and Johann Zarco.

Nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi struggled for pace which left him in 11th position, well shy of his team-mate.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Jack Miller ended up 16th on his Marc VDS Honda.

The MotoGP grid will reassemble at Qatar’s Losail circuit for the opening round of the world championship from March 24-26.

Result: MotoGP Pre-Season test, Qatar, Day 3