Vinales, Dovizioso and Iannone light up day 1 of Qatar tests

Doha/Bengaluru, March 2: Maverick Vinales of Movistar Yamaha MotoGP opened the Qatar MotoGP winter tests on top of the timesheets, with last year's victor at Losail putting in a 1:55.053 to narrowly beat Andrea Dovizioso of Ducati Team to the top by less than half a tenth second.

Even closer than that, Andrea Iannone of Team Suzuki Ecstar took third and was just 0.003 off Dovizioso ahead of him.

Action was a little sluggish to get in gear on Day 1 as some waited for conditions to become more similar to those that will prevail during the race weekend, but by the end of running the majority of the field had racked up half a century on the lapcounter.

At this test, there are three choices of front and rear from Michelin, with the soft and medium front tyres the same as the allocation for the race last year and the harder front the one new for this season used at the Sepang and Thai tests.

The rear allocation is the medium and hard from the race weekend at Losail in 2017, plus a new soft option to test.

That is in addition to each individual agenda - with Qatar now proving final decision time ahead of lights out.

For Vinales and the Movistar Yamaha MotoGP team, it's important track time after the Iwata marque struggled at Buriram, with much to test.

One thing that is defined for Yamaha, however, is aero - with electronics and grip issues the key focus.

Back on top on Day 1, Spaniard Vinales put in 64 laps, with team-mate Valentino Rossi not far behind on lap count or laptime.

The 'Doctor''s best was a 1:55.432 to put him in P7, but with exactly the same fastest lap as Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) ahead of him. Rossi was positive after Day 1, as was Vinales.

Among Honda riders,Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu) was the quickest once more - ending Day 1 in P14.

Nakagami's team-mate Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda Castrol) was the fastest Honda overall on Day 1 as he took P9, with Repsol Honda Team's Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa just 0.009 and 0.010 further back respectively as the three men lined up in a row on the timesheets.

Marquez concentrated on electronics and was positive, with team-mate Pedrosa making some different headlines with two tumbles, but rider was okay.