MOTOGP
FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 1 / MARCH 18, 2018
LOSAIL INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT / DOHA, QATAR
P84
of Zarco into the first corner,
Marquez followed him, close to
crashing as he was sucked along
in the slipstream.
By the end of the lap, Rossi
was also ahead, and now Zarco
would drop back steadily.
By the finish, the first three
were a couple of seconds clear
of Crutchlow, and then, after a
small gap, was Petrucci.
An impressive sixth went to
Vinales, who had qualified 12th
and finished the first lap 14th.
At half-distance, he was still a
distant 12th, but unobtrusively he
started picking up places, and
took sixth off Pedrosa with two
laps to go. The breakthrough
had been a setting change "that I
Iannone, who would soon lose
another place to Ducati first-timer
Jack Miller (Pramac Ducati). All
the while slow-starting Jorge Lo-
renzo (Ducati) was catching this
pair, and would get past Miller by
half-distance.
At this point, a couple of
changes. Rins had just moved
past Crutchlow into fourth when
he slid off, after running wide
onto the dirty part of the track
and losing the front. Later the
same lap, Lorenzo had a frighten-
ing front-brake failure, ran wide,
and had a slow tumble in the
gravel, remounting to retire.
The changes up front came
all of a sudden at the start of lap
18. As Dovi firmly took the lead
Tire choice was universal for
the rear, everyone choosing the
soft. Up front, only the factory
Honda riders went hard, while
Petrucci was among eight to
choose the soft.
Zarco had leapt away in the
lead from pole, and though Mar-
quez pushed ahead the first time
over the line, the Frenchman took
it back again directly, and stayed
in front for the first 17 laps.
Rossi had got away well from
row three, and took third off Dani
Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) on lap
three. Danilo Petrucci was now
fifth, then Cal Crutchlow (LCR
Honda) and Dovi. Close behind,
Alex Rins had got ahead of
Ecstar Suzuki teammate Andrea
Marquez says he
is happy to get on
the podium. He
came a whisker
away from being
on the top step.
