Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/798489
IN THE WIND P24 VINALES SLAUGHTERS THEM IN QATAR TEST W ith just two weeks to the first Mo- toGP of 2017, Maverick Vinales underscored his role as favorite title challenger, setting fast- est time yet again. The new Movistar Yamaha rider has led all four preseason tests, start- ing at Valencia in his first Yamaha outing late last year. But the margin was promisingly small for his rivals. The top nine were within half-a-sec- ond of Vinales, the top 13 inside one second. The top four were all inside last year's pole time. And the top three were all on different makes of bike. Vinales took over top spot from new Ducati rider Jorge Lo- renzo with just over two hours to go on the third and fastest day, and stayed there while the order shuffled. By the time dew settled, bringing proceedings to the usual slightly premature end, Andrea Dovizioso had moved into second on the other factory Ducati, and Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa had pushed up to third with a late charge after an until-then typically unobtrusive performance. Vinales's best time of 1:54.330 was just 0.071 faster than Dovizioso, with similar mar- gins for the next pair of riders. "I'm really happy," Vinales said. "We made another step with the bike and I feel comfort- able, even on race pace. We can still better the electronics and gain a couple of 10ths— we're not on the bike's limit and we can still push a bit more." Lorenzo dropped to fourth— significantly his best since his Ducati switch and leaving him "optimistic about the first race here." Aspar Ducati's Alvaro Bautista was next, then Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha) sixth. A late improvement from Scott Red- ding (Pramac Ducati) put him an unexpected seventh, ahead of flying rookie Jonas Folger, whose fellow-rookie teammate Johann Zarco completed the top 10, the Monster Yamaha duo sandwiching a hard-working Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda). Marc Marquez had earlier been right up at the front, but the defending champion missed the final flurry after a tumble, his third of the day and fourth of the weekend. The Repsol Honda rider was not hurt, but by the end had dropped to 11th. "It was my fault…but when you are doing a long run, you Maverick Vinales decimated the pre-season testing. Now let's see if he can hold it together for a full championship.