Quiet day for Ducati
For the most part, it had been a quiet day for the Ducatis, but Jorge Martin took away a P4 from Friday's (March 4) running, the 2021 Rookie of the Year sits ahead of fastest Yamaha Franco Morbidelli (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) - a late time saw the Italian leap up the timesheets.
Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team) is sixth ahead of qualifying day in the desert, as Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) grabbed P7 despite getting in a bit of a tangle with team-mate Maverick Vinales on his final flying effort.
Small gap
Reigning world champion Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) is four tenths off the pace in P8, just ahead of Pol Espargaro in ninth and Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) in tenth - the Italian sneaking into the top 10 after a crash at Turn 6 in FP1.
Just 0.8sec splits the top 15 down to FP1 pacesetter Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), as the riders outside the top 10 now face an uphill battle to try and earn an automatic Q2 place in the warmer, day time conditions in the desert venue.
Floodlights beaming
With the Losail International Circuit floodlights beaming, the premier class got straight to work and the lap times fell.
Marquez sat top before Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) took over as the riders got some valuable laps under their belts at the same time (6pm local time, 8.30pm IST), the race is going to be at on Sunday (March 6).
Rins the man to beat
Again, though, Rins ensured Marquez did not spend long at the top, and that is how it ended under lights at Losail on Day 1. The Spaniard set a 1:53.432 in FP2 to lead Marquez by 0.035sec, as Mir completed the top three.
Rins is the rider to beat heading into Day 2 under the Losail lights from Marquez and Mir. Bring it on!