Historically, the Warm-Up of the Qatar Grand Prix is not particularly indicative, at least as regards the choice of tires, given that it is held in decidedly different conditions to those of the race, which will start at 18 local time, therefore in the dark. illuminated by the artificial lights of the Lusail route.
Michelin’s indications speak of an almost obligatory choice for the soft andateriore in the race, with some rare exceptions that could be linked to Hondas and KTMs, but in this morning’s 20-minute shift there were several who used the hard. At the rear, on the other hand, the choice is open between soft and medium and are in fact those that were seen in the Warm-Up.
Enea Bastianini stood out in the end, confirming his excellent moment of form after yesterday’s second time in qualifying. The Gresini Racing rider mounted a soft and a medium and lapped in 1’54 “519. Following him there is another Ducati, that of Johann Zarco, who however had chosen a hard front and a soft rear and closed to 96 thousandths.
Same choice for Aleix Espargaro, third with Aprilia at 236 thousandths. And pay attention to the Granollers rider, because he is probably the one who has shown the most constant pace in this Warm-Up and, starting from fifth, he will certainly be taken into consideration for the race.
In fourth position there is the KTM of Miguel Oliveira, followed by the Yamaha of the world champion Fabio Quartararo, who does not seem to be able to have different options from a double soft tire, having to start from 12th place and being called to a comeback, besides to have complained of grip problems all weekend. Not surprisingly, team mate Franco Morbidelli, eighth, also mounted the same tires.
The two Ducatis of Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin slipped between the two M1s, with the Piedmontese who seems to have confirmed the good feelings he talked about after qualifying. In particular, he did a few laps with Marc Marquez, managing to overtake him and then go away. Indeed, the Honda rider also ran into a crash at turn 10 to try to keep up.
In the end, the eight-time world champion had to settle for the 11th time, trailing by just over half a second and also behind the two Suzukis. And it is curious that the two Hamamatsu drivers worked with completely different tires: soft and medium for Alex Rins ninth, hard and soft for Joan Mir who follows him.
Continuing to scroll through the ranking, the protagonists of the top positions of the grid are late Jack Miller and Pol Espargaro, respectively 14th and 16th. However, this is not great news for the Ducati rider, who usually never exaggerates in the Warm-Up.
Unfortunately, the other Italian drivers are all rather late, with Marco Bezzecchi in 19th position, followed by the other rookie Fabio Di Giannantonio, who also crashed at turn 1. 21st and 22nd time then for Luca Marini and Andrea Dovizioso, that just don’t seem to be able to find the key to the problem this weekend.
Finally, the crash at turn 4 should also be noted, which in any case did not prevent Raul Fernandez from being the fastest among the rookies: the KTM Tech3 driver in fact finished 17th.
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