Qatar MotoGP: Quartararo fastest in warm-up, pole sitter Bagnaia 15th | MotoGP

It was a perfect start to the first day of racing in the 2021 MotoGP season for Yamaha as the factory duo of Fabio Quartararo and Maverick Vinales took the lead in the pre-race warm-up.

The drivers struggled with extremely windy conditions throughout practice, as the lap times were about a second below the expected race pace.

It was a relatively smooth session for Quartararo given the conditions. However, the Frenchman was scared after the checkered flag fell when the wind aggressively shook his M1 Yamaha at the front end during a practice start.

Early on it was Johann Zarco who was the fastest for Pramac Ducati, and he held this position until the last minutes of the meeting. The 30-year-old finally came in third.

It was a slow start to the day for the factory Ducati team. The fastest man of all time on the Losail International Circuit, Francesco Bagnaia, fought under the tough conditions.

Bagnaia finished the session in 15th place, teammate Jack Miller in 21st place.

The Australian decided to stay in the pit lane for most of the session and finished his first flight lap in just five minutes.

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Alex Marquez was the best placed Honda in fourth place ahead of his teammate Takaaki Nakagami.

If the wind holds the race this could be a good day for Honda as they have already achieved success in similar conditions.

Pol Espargaro was sixth fastest as he continued his adaptation of the Honda. For the former KTM rider, it was a much tougher weekend than in the test with two falls.

On the subject of matching items

The top ten were rounded off by rookies Enea Bastianini in seventh and Luca Marini in ninth place. While Stefan Bradl was the last Hondas in eighth and Franco Morbidelli in tenth.