Alvaro Bautista heads second night in Qatar

Gresini Honda rider Alvaro Bautista led the way on the second night of MotoGP testing at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar.

A quickest lap of 1.55.194 saw the Spaniard finish 0.314s clear of fellow factory Honda RC213V rider Stefan Bradl, with Forward Yamaha rider Aleix Espargaro completing the top three.

Lap times were closer than on the opening night, with just over 0.8s splitting the top six, which also included British rider Bradley Smith, reigning Moto2 world champion Pol Espargaro and Pramac Ducati’s Andrea Iannone.

Smith was fourth fastest, with a best time of 1.55.627 leaving him 0.433s behind Bautista and just over 0.2s clear of Tech 3 Yamaha teammate Espargaro.

Nicky Hayden once again led the production Honda RCV1000R challenge, with a personal best lap of 1.56.923 putting the American in ninth.

British rider Scott Redding was only one place further back in 10th, but a lap of 1.57.154 was just over 0.2s behind 2006 MotoGP world champion Hayden.

British rider Michael Laverty was 15th fastest on the PBM machine after he set a best time of 1.57.860 to finish just over 2.5s off Bautista’s benchmark.

This week’s Qatar test doesn’t feature the likes of Valentino Rossi, Dani Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo and Cal Crutchlow, as they all took part in a special tyre test on behalf of Bridgestone at the Phillip Island track in Australia.