Vinales survives crash to keep Qatar motorcycling stranglehold
Maverick Vinales survived a high-speed crash to maintain his iron-grip on the Qatar MotoGP on Friday, finishing the second day of practice comfortably the fastest man on the track.
The 22-year-old Spaniard, who had already dominated under the Losail floodlights in Thursday's opening session, clocked a best time of 1min 54.316sec on his Yamaha to lead Suzuki's Andrea Iannone (0.532sec behind) and Honda's defending world champion Marc Marquez (0.596).
Nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi, the Yamaha teammate of Vinales, struggled for a second day in succession, finishing 10th on the time charts at 1.098sec behind the flying Spaniard.
Former world champion Jorge Lorenzo, who left Yamaha for Ducati at the end of last season, suffered even more, ending in 12th place at 1.145sec off the blistering pace set by Vinales.
Vinales, who moved from Suzuki in the winter before going on to dominate all four pre-season testing sessions, had escaped unscathed from a crash earlier in the day.
Rossi's struggles had earlier on Friday led to 1993 world champion Kevin Schwantz suggesting that the great Italian, now 38 years old, may even retire at the end of the season should he be outpaced and outshone by Vinales in the championship.
"Do I think he'll retire at the end of the year if Maverick hands him his ass weekend in, weekend out? He possibly could," Schwantz told motorsport.com.
Sunday's night-time race in Qatar is the first of 17 rounds in the 2017 championship.
However, Rossi can at least boast impressive form at the desert circuit, having won there on four occasions.