The 2016 MotoGP World Championship officially commenced this evening in Qatar, with a single free-practice session for the premier class. Rain had fallen on-and-off all day Wednesday, but the track was in generally good condition when action got underway at 8:55 p.m. Thursday local time.

At the end of the 45 minute session, Repsol Honda Team riders Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez were classified seventh and eight respectively, with Dani setting his fastest time of 1’56.098 on his seventh lap and Marc recording a 1’56.258 time on his 15th and final lap.

FP2 and FP3 will commence tomorrow at 6 p.m. and 8:55 p.m. local time, respectively.

Dani Pedrosa - 7th 1'56.098

"Luckily, the track was in good condition and this practice was a useful start for us to gather information, because we started working on the setup we used on the last day of test and then decided to try a big change. We need to work more on this idea and I hope tomorrow we’ll be able to build on it. We’ll study the data we’ve gathered very thoroughly in order to improve in the direction we feel could make the bike faster. We’ll try to reduce the gap, tenth by tenth, working on power delivery and chassis settings."

Marc Marquez - 8th 1'56.258

"Today the 2016 season started for real. It was not the easiest FP1 I've ridden in, but we tried to improve gradually. The feeling was not very good, but we worked hard and we tried a lot of things out, so now we have to see what has changed between the test and today. We know that in Qatar the track conditions change a lot, so we will try to continue to evolve and get close to the top riders."


1   - LORENZO Jorge 99 SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 1'55.440
2   - ROSSI Valentino 46 ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 1'55.707
3   - IANNONE Andrea 29 ITA Ducati Team Ducati 1'55.736
4   - BARBERA Hector 8 SPA Avintia Racing Ducati 1'55.810
5   - VINALES Maverick 25 SPA Team Suzuki Ecstar Suzuki 1'55.847
6   - ESPARGARO Pol 44 SPA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1'56.051
7   - PEDROSA Dani 26 SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1'56.098
8   - MARQUEZ Marc 93 SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1'56.258
9   - DOVIZIOSO Andrea 4 ITA Ducati Team Ducati 1'56.387
10 - REDDING Scott 45 GBR Octo Pramac Racing Ducati 1'56.412
11 - SMITH Bradley 38 GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1'56.524
12 - CRUTCHLOW Cal 35 GBR LCR Honda Honda 1'56.596
13 - BAZ Loris 76 FRA Avintia Racing Ducati 1'56.783
14 - MILLER Jack 43 AUS Marc VDS Racing Team Honda 1'56.939
15 - PETRUCCI Danilo 9 ITA Octo Pramac Racing Ducati 1'56.981
16 - ESPARGARO Aleix 41 SPA Team Suzuki Ecstar Suzuki 1'57.096
17 - BAUTISTA Alvaro 19 SPA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 1'57.129
18 - HERNANDEZ Yonny 68 COL Aspar MotoGP Team Ducati 1'57.192
19 - LAVERTY Eugene 50 IRE Aspar MotoGP Team Ducati 1'57.421
20 - RABAT Tito 53 SPA Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 1'57.916
21 - BRADL Stefan 6 GER Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 1'57.989