Vinales sets the pace in Doha

DOHA — Maverick Vinales defied dust and desert winds to set the fastest practice time for the season-opening Qatar MotoGP, overshadowing nine-time world champion and Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi, who struggled in ninth place. Vinales, the 22-year-old Spaniard who switched from Suzuki for the 2017 world championship, was almost one and a half seconds clear of 38-year-old Rossi. The Honda duo of defending world champion Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa were second and third fastest at 0.596sec and 0.894sec respectively off the pace. Rossi, a four-time winner in Qatar, admitted his Yamaha was struggling to match the pace of Vinales, who was only two years old when the great Italian won his first world title on a 125cc machine in 1997. Marquez, who has won three of the last four world titles and triumphed under the Qatar floodlights in 2012 and 2014, admitted that Vinales was the man to beat in Sunday’s race. — AFP