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Qualifying report

Dovizioso grabs shock pole position for Qatar MotoGP opener

Andrea Dovizioso will start from a surprise MotoGP pole position for Ducati after blitzing the Q2 qualifying session at Qatar on Saturday evening.

Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team

Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team

Ducati Corse

Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team
Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team
Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing
Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team
Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha Factory Racing
Yonny Hernandez, Pramac Ducati
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso claimed the first pole position of the 2015 MotoGP season ahead of tomorrow’s Commercial Bank Grand Prix of Qatar with the Italian rider leaping to the top of the time sheets ahead of factory Honda pairing and Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez.

I had a great feeling on the soft tyre to make a special laptime

Andrea Dovizioso

Pedrosa was the first to show his hand in Qualifying 2 with the Spaniard setting a best lap of 1m54.330s early on. Reigning MotoGP champion Marquez’s best lap of 1m54.437s wasn’t enough to move past his teammate, while Dovizioso found a little extra on his GP15 machine to take the pole position with a 1m54.113s lap.

"I had a feeling, the base of the bike is so good, we are able to fight with the fastest riders," said Dovizioso. "We can be very consistent in the race, and I had a great feeling on the soft tyre to make a special laptime."

The second factory Ducati in the hands of Andrea Iannone will start from 4th place with a 1m54.521s and further cementing the threat Ducati will threat to this year’s championship, the 5th placed rider is Yonny Hernandez for the Pramac Ducati team with the Columbian just 0.154s off Iannone.

Yamaha didn’t have a qualifying session to remember with Jorge Lorenzo grabbing the final starting place on the second row with the factory Yamaha rider setting a best lap of 1m54.711s, while Tech 3’s Bradley Smith made a mammoth effort to make it into Q2 and he eventually set a best lap of 1m54.732s and finished ahead of Valentino Rossi.

Danilo Petrucci will start from 9th place tomorrow and the Pramac Ducati rider leads Tech 3’s Pol Espargaro who was the first rider outside the 1m54 bracket setting a best time of 1m55.004s.

Aleix Espargaro was off the pace, with the Spaniard setting the 11th best time of 1m55.035s and the final spot in Q2 went to Cal Crutchlow who was near the front early on only to crash at the end of the session.

Losail Q2 times

 Pos   Rider   Bike   Time   Gap 
Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 1:54.113  
Daniel Pedrosa Honda 1:54.330 0.217
Marc Marquez Honda 1:54.437 0.324
Andrea Iannone Ducati 1:54.521 0.408
Yonny Hernandez Ducati 1:54.675 0.562
Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1:54.711 0.598
Bradley Smith Yamaha 1:54.732 0.619
Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1:54.851 0.738
Danilo Petrucci Ducati 1:54.876 0.763
10  Pol Espargaro Yamaha 1:55.004 0.891
11  Aleix Espargaro Suzuki 1:55.035 0.922
12  Cal Crutchlow Honda 1:55.123 1.010

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