News 20 Mar 2017

Nakagami and Fenati reign in final Qatar tests

Weather-affected three days concludes Moto2 and Moto3 schedule.

Source: Supplied.

It was an eventful final official Moto2 and Moto3 test of the pre-season at Qatar last week, as on day one it was rain, on day two it was good running and day three ended in a sandstorm alongside thunder and lightning.

High winds throughout the day gave way to rain and sand by the third Moto3 session, with the final outing for Moto2 preseason then cancelled.

Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) was therefore top overall after his 2m00.187s on day two, with EG0,0 Marc VDS rider Franco Morbidelli only 0.053 back. 2014 Moto3 champion Alex Marquez (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS) ended his pre-season in P3 after topping Jerez, 0.240s off first.

Hafizh Syahrin (Petronas Raceline Malaysia) was an impressive fourth only half a second back, with Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Ajo) keeping the new KTM chassis in the top five on a 2m00.861s. His teammate – reigning Moto3 world champion Brad Binder – was 1.6 seconds off as he returns from injury.

The third and final outing for the Moto3 grid at Losail International Circuit saw the weather return as a key protagonist during this test.

That left the big names from combined times on day two holding on to their places on the time-sheets. Returning Romano Fenati (Marinelli Rivacold Snipers) kept his throne, ahead of Jorge Martin (Del Conca Gresini Moto3) by a tiny 0.039 margin.

Martin suffered a crash at turn 15 on Saturday, but escaped with only a small contusion to his hand. Third on the time-sheets remained Aron Canet (Estrella Galicia 0,0), again incredibly close and only a further 0.020 in arrears.

That’s now a wrap on testing for the lightweight class, with the next time on track Thursday at Losail as FP1 gets underway and we prepare to go racing.

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