The 2017 MotoGP World Championship season got going under the floodlights at the Losail International Circuit on Thursday evening as the first free practice session for the premier class took place. LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow put in a solid opening showing, despite some issues with his Honda RC213V, as he finished the day in seventh place.

The Briton – who is hoping to build on his two race victories in 2016 – endured an oil leak at the start of the session which hampered his progress. 

Further issues with the bike meant Crutchlow wasn’t at his best, but he still produced a very respectable result and ended the session less than half a second behind Dani Pedrosa in third spot.

As he did during the recent pre-season test in Qatar, young Spaniard Maverick Viñales topped the timesheets. 

“It was not a bad day overall. Obviously, you could see we had a technical problem at the start, it was an oil leak due to a oil plug not properly tightned".

“After that we tested a setting on which the bike was only meant to be ridden for one lap as it was an incorrect setting, and that meant I didn’t feel very comfortable and wasn’t able to ride at my best. But we are happy enough with our progress today and hopefully we can improve tomorrow.”