Qatar MotoGP Testing Results: Vinales fastest, Marquez on 2019 Honda

Maverick Vinales confirmed his status as one of the riders to beat coming into the opening round of the 2020 MotoGP World Championship as he headed up the timesheets on the final day of testing in Qatar.

The Spaniard completed Yamaha’s largely dominant turn in testing, with the Iwata marque topping five of the six official pre-season testing days. This was split between Vinales’ quickest time of all on Monday and Fabio Quartararo’s best time on Sunday, plus all three days in Sepang.

Only Suzuki’s Alex Rins could stop a Yamaha whitewash after he topped the timesheets on Saturday, though both the Japanese firm and Yamaha were the most eye-catching teams both over single laps and in race simulation.

Indeed, five of their representatives filled the top six with Franco Morbidelli in second, Rins third, Quartararo fourth and Joan Mir in sixth. Only Jack Miller on the Pramac Ducati could split them in fifth place.

Even so, it was remarkably close up and down the field with the top 18 riders covered by less than a second.

There was plenty of media attention down at Honda after it emerged Marc Marquez borrowed Takaaki Nakagami’s 2019-spec LCR Honda – his own title-winning machine from last year – as the team frantically find solutions to a handling issue that has afflicted the latest RC213V.

Marquez looked more competitive today in seventh place, though it isn’t clear whether he set the lap on the 2019 or 2020 machine. Nakagami on the 2019 bike was a fine eighth, whereas 2020-equipped Cal Crutchlow and Alex Marquez were well down in 18^th and 21^st.

Elsewhere, Brad Binder put in a brilliant lap to crack the top ten for the first time on the KTM in ninth position, while Valentino Rossi suffered a fall towards the end of the day as he pushed on for a fast lap. He ended the test 12^th best

2020 Official MotoGP Testing Results – Day 3/3