MotoGP: Rins over Marquez in Friday Qatar practice

The 2022 MotoGP World Championship season officially got underway in Qatar, the MotoGP teams eagerly returning to the racetrack after the winter break. As always, conditions around the Losail International Circuit improved over the course of the opening day, the first session held under daylight and the second session held at night, under the lights.

Alex Rins, topped the timesheets on Day 1 of 2022 as MotoGP returned to blistering action at the Grand Prix of Qatar. The Spaniard set a 1:53.432 under the lights in FP2 to lead Marc Marquez by 0.035s, as Joan Mir completed the top three.

“Overall I think we are in a better position than we were expecting and I think that a good target for us tomorrow is to aim for the front two rows,” said Marquez.

“We still need to understand how to improve our rhythm a bit to close the gap to the top. I feel like I am riding quite ‘clean’, I am still working to understand the front of the new bike so my riding does not yet look like ‘Marquez style’ but the lap time is coming. It’s about being patient, it’s very early in the season and this is normally a track where we struggle a bit. It’s still Friday though, the weekend has just started. Today I pushed, tomorrow I will push again.”

Qatar Grand Prix Friday Practice Results