Crutchlow leads Qualifying 1 and now advances to Qualifying 2 along with team-mate Nakagami. Already sore from a big highside in FP3, Lorenzo was one of several riders to tumble during the 15-minute session. The Spaniard seemed to gesture that the slippery conditions he had been warning about late at night had caught him out. To make things worse for Lorenzo, he was then pushed outside of the top two. Rossi will also be absent from Qualifying 2, and start from just 14th on the grid. The Italian was unable to feature in the top positions throughout Q1. CLICK HERE for live updates … Fastest Friday time: Marc Marquez SPA Honda 1m 53.380s Fastest time at 2019 Qatar Test: Maverick Vinales SPA Yamaha 1m 54.208s Official Qatar MotoGP records: Best lap: Johann Zarco FRA Yamaha 1m 53.680s (2018) Fastest race lap: Jorge Lorenzo SPA Yamaha 1m 54.927s (2016)<doc-sep>Maverick Vinales continued his impressive pre-season form in the first qualifying session of the new year. Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales has secured the first pole position of the new MotoGP season in Qatar as teammate Valentino Rossi will start all the way down in 14th. Vinales continued his promising form from pre-season testing to pip Andrea Dovizioso on his Ducati with Marc Marquez completing the front row after qualifying in third. Dovizioso admitted afterwards he was shocked to find himself on the front row having finished testing downbeat following three days of running in 15th on the same track in Qatar. Every round of the MotoGP LIVE with no ad-breaks during racing. Get it all on Foxtel. "We finished the test with a really bad feeling with the bike," he admitted. "We wanted to test a lot of things during the tests in Malaysia and here, but in the end we understood it didn’t work in this track. "We wanted to study a lot during the week before the race, and it was right. I’m so happy with the way we worked in this practice [this weekend], we improved a lot our speed, and this is what we need to save the tyre and be on top in the race." Australian Jack Miller will start in fourth on the grid, although it could have been better for the Ducati rider after he briefly moved up to second, only to crash at Turn 2 moments later. Maverick Vinales will start on the front row alongside Andrea Dovizioso and Marc Marquez. Source: AFP He still managed to hold onto third until the last lap of Q2 when world champion Marquez leapfrogged ahead of Miller to demote him to the second row on the grid. Two of the championship contenders in Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo were out in Q1, starting 14th and 15th in Monday’s race (AEDT) respectively. Lorenzo suffered a crash at Turn 2 with three minutes left of Q1 meaning he was unable to set a quicker time on his Honda debut. Rossi, on the other hand, never looked like threatening for much of the session.<doc-sep>Dovizioso wins a thrilling season-opening Qatar MotoGP night race after another showdown with Marquez, decided in the Italian's favour at the very final corner - just like last year! Crutchlow completed a close podium in his first race since last October's serious ankle injuries as just 0.6s covered the top five riders, from Dovizioso to Rossi, who started from 13th. Miller's seat foam came loose early in the race and he had to throw it off the bike, and later retired. Rookie Quartararo was devastated to stall on the grid, forcing him to start from pit lane instead of fifth, but mounted a strong comeback. Smith was making his Aprilia race debut as a wild-card. CLICK HERE for live updates … *Rookie<doc-sep>Marquez grabbed a tow from Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales late in the session to eclipse Johann Zarco's existing lap record set in qualifying last year. The session, held in the evening under the lights and thus more representative for the race than the daytime FP1 and FP3, was delayed by five minutes for track clean-up following ex-MotoGP rider Tom Luthi's big crash exiting the Turn 7 right-hander in Moto2 practice. When it kicked off, Rossi's first-practice benchmark was surpassed in almost no time, as Marquez fired in the first sub-1m55s lap of the weekend on just his second flying lap. He was briefly overtaken by Ducati's Danilo Petrucci a few minutes later, but immediately responded with a 1m54.767s to end his opening run out front. The reigning champion remained top until Suzuki rookie Joan Mir equipped a pair of fresh soft tyres and shot up to first place from 13th with a 1m54.433s as late-session qualifying simulations kicked off. Pramac Ducati rider Jack Miller, likewise on new softs, soon surpassed Mir, before Franco Morbidelli took his turn out front, having recovered from a high-speed Turn 1 crash earlier in FP2, which had left his Yamaha on fire. Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso then went quickest with five minutes left on the clock, but was subsequently outpaced by Vinales. However, Marquez crossed the start-finish line moments after the Yamaha man to go almost half a second quicker with a 1m53.380s, the new lap record. Vinales' effort proved good enough for second, ahead of Miller and the Aussie's former teammate Petrucci. Rookie Fabio Quartararo scored an impressive fifth, two places up on Petronas SRT Yamaha teammate Morbidelli, with Dovizioso slotting in between the pair. Suzuki's Alex Rins fired in a personal-best at the chequered flag to move up to eighth place, ahead of Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro and Mir. Rins' last-gasp effort demoted Marquez's new teammate Jorge Lorenzo to 11th, as he ended the session 1.048s off the pace. Rossi was only 17th, the only rider in the field not to improve on his FP1 lap. He and Lorenzo, as well as 13th-placed LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow, potentially face having to go through Q1, as posting a better laptime is likely to be difficult in the daytime third practice. Pol Espargaro led the way among the KTM contingent, posting the 16th-best time, 1.673s slower than Marquez. FP2 times:<doc-sep>
Vinales continued his strong form from pre-season testing at the Losail circuit to beat Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso by 0.198 seconds in Q2, while Marc Marquez made it three different marques on the front row with a time just a thousandth slower than Dovizioso. In the opening runs, it was Vinales that laid down an early benchmark with a 1m53.844s effort, with Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda) and Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha) making up an unusual-looking top three at the midpoint of the 15-minute pole shootout. Vinales, seemingly uninterested in getting a tow from any of his rivals, then bettered his benchmark to a 1m53.546s on his second run, a time that was good enough for his seventh MotoGP pole and his second in three years at Qatar. Jack Miller briefly moved up to second with a 1m53.809s, only to crash at Turn 2 moments later, and the Australian was eclipsed by Ducati stablemate Dovizioso by 0.065s. With the help of a tow from another Ducati rider, Danilo Petrucci, Marquez then vaulted up to third at the chequered flag, demoting Miller to fourth. Quartararo ended up as top rookie by a comfortable margin in fifth, exactly four tenths slower than Vinales, followed by Q1 pacesetter Cal Crutchlow (LCR) and Petrucci. Franco Morbidelli was eighth on the second of the Petronas machines ahead of Nakagami, who likewise made it through Q1, with Suzuki pair Alex Rins and Joan Mir and Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro making up the Q2 order. Q1: Lorenzo crashes, Rossi just misses out Lorenzo's chances of escaping the opening part of qualifying were wrecked by a crash at Turn 2 with three minutes left on the clock, meaning he will start 15th on his Honda debut. The Spaniard newcomer had been second behind Crutchlow after the opening runs, and his fall opened the door for Nakagami to grab the other Q2 transfer spot. With no time to get back on track on his spare bike, Lorenzo was further demoted after the chequered flag by Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Ducati) and Rossi. Yamaha rider Rossi never really looked like threatening the top two for much of the session, but in the end the Italian was only 0.106s shy of Nakagami's time. Pol Espargaro will open up row six on the best of the KTMs on Sunday ahead of Tech 3's Miguel Oliveira and Tito Rabat (Avintia Ducati), who likewise crashed in Q1. Johann Zarco condemned himself to 21st with a Turn 2 crash on the second KTM, and will start two places behind Aprilia new recruit Andrea Iannone on row seven. Q2 results: Q1 results:​