Motorsports news - Maverick Vinales fastest in Valencia testing opener
ByAutoSport
Updated 20/11/2018 at 18:46 GMT
Yamaha's Maverick Vinales was fastest on the rain-shortened opening day of the MotoGP post-season test in Valencia, while Jorge Lorenzo finished 18th on his Honda debut.
Maverick Viñales - 2018 MotoGP test Valencia Grand Prix - Getty Images
Image credit: Getty Images
The track was wet when the session began and riders remained in the pits for the first 90 minutes of the seven-hour session.
Johann Zarco was the first rider on track in his KTM debut, almost crashing during his wet-tyre running on a rapidly drying surface.
Following another 30 minutes of inactivity it was again Zarco back on track, but he was soon followed by the rest of the field as the Ducati riders topped the timesheets early on.
Test rider Michele Pirro and new factory Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci both spent around 10 minutes on top before Andrea Dovizioso took over by an improvement of four tenths with a 1m32.422 seconds lap.
Marc Marquez snatched the lead soon after he began his running in the session, riding a 2018-spec Honda, but Dovizioso was soon back ahead with a lap of 1m31.854s.
Marquez then set two 1m31.7s tours during the fourth hour but he again could not hold on to first place for long with Vinales logging a 1m31.416s time with two hours remaining.
Fifteen minutes later the rain flags were waved, which meant Vinales stayed on top until the chequered flag as he beat Marquez by 0.302s.
Marquez, who is not fully fit after a couple of crashes during the Valencia season finale, had three bikes available, including a 2018 version, a brand new bike and a mix of the two.
The reigning champion's new team-mate Lorenzo, who is also recovering from injury, ended the day 18th and 1.2s slower than Marquez.
Valentino Rossi finished in third for Yamaha as the factory team spent the day comparing a new engine with the current specification.
Fourth-placed Dovizioso led the way for Ducati but the Italian did not try the new-spec bike.
Honda tester Stefan Bradl, riding for LCR in place of the injured Cal Crutchlow, was fifth with Franco Morbidelli making an impressive debut with the Petronas Yamaha outfit by finishing sixth.
Aleix Espargaro was the top Aprilia in seventh as the team's two new additions Andrea Iannone and its tester Bradley Smith finished 19th and 21st.
Petrucci settled for eighth place, ahead of Pol Espargaro with his new KTM team-mate Zarco 17th.
Pirro completed the top 10 and was the only rider to crash during the day.
Reigning Moto2 champion Francesco Bagnaia was the top rookie in 11th, beating Suzuki's Alex Rins by 0.006s.
Jack Miller's debut on a factory-spec Ducati ended prematurely due to mechanical issues and the Pramac rider ended in 14th.
He was followed by Suzuki rookie Joan Mir and Tito Rabat.
Rabat returned to track action for the first time since he broke his leg at Silverstone and was 16th.
Yamaha's new test rider Jonas Folger and rookie Fabio Quartararo were 22nd and 23rd respectively.
The order was rounded out by Tech3 pairing Hafizh Syahrin and Miguel Oliveira on the French outift's new KTM bikes.
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