Romano Fenati (Snipers Team) picked up where he left off in preseason in FP1 at the VisitQatar Grand Prix as he set a new lap record of 2:05.917 to lead second place Jakub Kornfeil (Redox PruestelGP) by 0.300.
The early laps are on the board and @RomanoFenati leads the way! ????#QatarGP ???????? pic.twitter.com/8lVOX10ho9
— MotoGP™ ???????? (@MotoGP) March 8, 2019
The sun was shining as the Moto3™ riders kicked off the 2019 World Championship, with no one being able to get close to Fenati as he set his best time towards the end of the session. Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Leopard Racing) was third quickest in the maiden session of the year, the Honda rider 0.457 back from his compatriot, with Dennis Foggia (SKY Racing Team VR46) making it three Italians in the top four in P4 – 0.621 the gap to Fenati.
Fifth was Ayumu Sasaki (Petronas Sprinta Racing) on board his Honda machine. The Japanese rider led the way in the latter stages before the top four all went quicker, leading Sasaki 0.766 from P1.
While on a session-best lap time in the early stages, Niccolo Antonelli (SIC58 Squadra Corse) crashed at Turn 9 – the first faller of the year. He was ok, with Sergio Garcia’s Estrella Galicia 0,0 replacement Ryusei Yamanaka and Jaume Masia (Bester Capital Dubai) also crashed. Yamanaka was ok, with Masia slow to get up while still nursing three fractured toes from his Jerez Test crash.
Tune in for Moto3™ FP2 at 18:10 local time (GMT+3).
Click here for the full results!