Source: Supplied.

Maverick Viñales was second on the first day of the Qatar MotoGP test, but the fastest man in Valencia, Sepang and Phillip Island struck back in style to top the time-sheets on Saturday.

Edging Movistar Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi with a lap quicker than Andrea Dovizioso’s (Ducati Team) Friday best, Viñales did a best of 1m54.455s.

Despite the time-sheets being dominated by blue, it was Ducati’s new aero fairing that stole the headlines, with a drastic new design unveiled in the latter stages of the second day on track.

Dubbed the ‘Hammerhead’ after MotoGP asked fans on Twitter to name the new design, it was Dovizioso charged with the first public evaluations of the innovation. The Italian put in a best of 1m55.583s, seven tenths down on his best from Friday. His Saturday lap-time was set on the ‘traditional’ fairing tested thus far and put him P13.

Teammate Jorge Lorenzo impressed on Saturday with more progress as he dropped into the low 1m55s to go to P8. The ‘Spartan’ was quick out the blocks and went on to complete 53 laps, despite suffering a small crash with no consequence.

Fellow crashers on day two included Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda), Jack Miller (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS), Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Racing), Alvaro Bautista (Pull&Bear Aspar Team), Bradley Smith (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) and the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini duo of Sam Lowes and Aleix Espargaro.

Crutchlow got in more running on Saturday after losing some track time to mechanical gremlins on day one, ending the session in fourth despite the incident and managing 46 laps on the second day of action. The two-time GP winner was also top Honda once again, this time with a 1m55.032s.

Reigning champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) kept it clean after two falls on Friday and ended the day in sixth. Teammate Dani Pedrosa had a tougher day at a track he finds more of a challenge, ending up 16th.

Jonas Folger kept his crown as top rookie, putting in another stunner to complete the top three on his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine. Folger was the only rider able to join the Movistar Yamahas in the 1m54s bracket, putting in an incredible 1m54.917s.

Aleix Espargaro finished day two completing the top five for Aprilia despite his crash, with fellow Independent Team rider Alvaro Bautista also impressing in the top 10 to put his Ducati GP16 in seventh.

Scott Redding (Octo Pramac Racing) had a much improved second day to take ninth on his last lap of the day, with Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rookie and reigning Moto2 champion Johann Zarco completing the top 10 overall.

Andrea Iannone was the fastest Team Suzuki Ecstar rider in P12, with teammate Alex Rins in 17th. Rins tried the Suzuki aero fairing for the first time, ending the session ahead of the EG 0,0 Marc VDS pairing of Tito Rabat – returning from injury – and Jack Miller.

Red Bull KTM Factory racing trio Pol Espargaro, Bradley Smith and test rider Mika Kallio got through another big program of work for the Austrian factory on Saturday, with Espargaro the fastest of the trio.