Six riders bust below 1’55 as times dropped in the second of three days of tests at Qatar today, with Ecstar Suzuki rider Andrea Iannone coming through to top the time sheets in a final flurry that also saw Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) putting in a flier to move up from tenth to third.

The pair sandwiched long-time session leader Andrea Dovizioso’s Ducati; with Johan Zarco (Monster Yamaha), second Suzuki rider Alex Rins and LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow also in the 1’54 bracket.

“A good day for us – the feeling with the bike is good, and for sure we made a very good lap time,” said Iannone. “Tomorrow we have other things to try on the bike, but the package is good.” It reflects the regaining of momentum for Suzuki, after a difficult 2017.

A few spatters of rain added to the usual slow start; but conditions improved and times were still dropping into the darkness, in spite of the fears of dew on the surface.

Marquez blamed the drop in temperature for his first crash of the season, when he was caught out at the notorious turn two with a hard front tyre.  But the defending champion was confident all the same, having swapped to his spare bike and gone faster still. “We lost the way a little bit early, but then I was able to go fast again,” he said.

Times were not quite as close as yesterday, with 14 within the first second.

Maverick Vinales was the top rider outside 1’54, lying seventh, but the Movistar Yamaha rider’s confidence of yesterday was in abeyance. He was complaining of acceleration problems and wheelspin, and having “the same problems as at every test”.

The Pramac Ducati team-mates, Petrucci and Miller, were eighth and ninth.

Dani Pedrosa rounded out the top ten, the second Repsol Honda rider barely three hundredths faster that 11th-fastest Valentino Rossi, who described his lap time as “average” but said that his race pace was better.

Aleix Espargaro was 13th, better of the two Aprilias, still awaiting the new engine that had been expected here. Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda) came back from a mild tumble to claim 13th, again significantly top rookie.

Tomorrow riders will be hoping to run race simulations as well as making a final time attack, for bragging rights in the lead up to the opening round in two weeks.

One concern for several was front tyre wear.

Honda produced yet another fairing design for testing today, for Marquez only, with larger boxes on the sides of the nose, in yet another tribute to Ducati.

Final decisions on fairing design will have to be made before practice starts for the Qatar GP in a fortnight.

Apart from the trout-pout Suzukis, the fashion is for bolted (or rivetted) add-on sections rather than the styled-in ducting seen in several cases last year. Under the year-two design-freeze rules, items (including half of or the entire boxes) can be removed from homologated fairings) as required.

Teams are allowed one update during the season, and the bodywork is homologated rider by rider, so that similar bikes can have different aero bodywork.

Valentino Rossi came a step closer to confirming a renewal of his contract with Yamaha for 2019 and 2020, telling Dorna’s TV cameras that “we are still speaking, but I think yes. We will make an announcement when we are ready.”

His decision to stay on to the age of 41 does leave Yamaha with some difficulties, with the other factory seat already committed to Maverick Vinales until the end of 2020.

The shock announcement that the satellite Tech 3 team is to break a 20-year association with Yamaha – confidently expected to switch to full factory bikes with KTM, and keeping current rider Johan Zarco on the books – leaves the Iwata factory seeking a new partner for their “junior” squad, but with no tempting spot in the factory team to attack quality management or riders.

By Michael Scott