Ominous Bagnaia Ends Final MotoGP Preseason Test Fastest

MotoGP testing is over for 2024, but the identity of the man on top is unchanged from 2023, as Francesco Bagnaia ends preseason with another outright circuit record, this time from the MotoGP Qatar Test.

2024 MotoGP Qatar Test, Day 2

MotoGP only had two days of testing in Qatar, and of the 16 available track hours probably four of them were in suitable conditions for learning, with the sun and sand of the desert making track conditions unrepresentative, for the most part.

Just like on day one of the test, the arrival of the night saw reigning MotoGP World Champion Francesco Bagnaia rise to the top of the timesheets. This time, he set a new lap record, almost one second faster than the 1:51.762 set by Luca Marini in Q2 at last year’s Qatar Grand Prix. Bagnaia’s 1:50.952 saw him end the Qatar test in the same way he had ended the previous Sepang test: as the fastest rider.

It’s impossible to say at the moment whether Bagnaia’s speed in preseason means he is on course for a third straight world title, but at this stage it’s also impossible to discount him.

Bagnaia’s factory Ducati teammate, Enea Bastianini, is not a hot lapper. He has one MotoGP pole position to his name, from Austria in 2022, and his strength is generally in maintaining strong tyre life in the closing stages of a Grand Prix. Additionally, Bastianini is coming into 2024 off the back of a 2023 in which he scored only one podium - his win in Malaysia. So, to see the Italian in second place at the end of the Qatar test is arguably as ominous as Bagnaia’s outright speed. Bastianini was also under Marini’s record with his 1:51.072, but that still left Bagnaia as the only rider in the 1:50s.

The top nine positions on day two were filled by Italian bikes. Aleix Espargaro, Raul Fernandez, and Maverick Vinales held up Aprilia honour in third, fifth, and sixth, respectively. Six of the remaining seven places in the top 10 were taken by Ducati riders. Aside from the two factory riders, Jorge Martin, Fabio Di Giannantonio, and Marco Bezzzecchi were seventh, eighth, and 10th, respectively.

Marc Marquez was the other Ducati in the top 10. He had his strongest day of the preseason, finishing the day in fourth place. He did, however, also suffer his first crash on Ducati machinery, but returned to the garage seemingly mostly unharmed, albeit with scuffed Alpinestars leathers. 

Brad Binder in ninth place was the only rider on a non-Italian bike to be inside the top 10 on the final day of the Qatar test, but the KTM rider was over half-a-second shy of Bagnaia.

Although there had been positivity surrounding the Japanese manufacturers over the winter, the best Yamaha was Fabio Quartararo in 14th, and Johann Zarco was the best Honda in 17th, both manufacturers suffering with rear grip.

Full results from the second and final day of the MotoGP Qatar Test are below.

2024 Qatar MotoGP Test Results, Day 2

2024 MotoGP Qatar Test, Day 1

Much of the first day of the 2024 MotoGP Qatar Test was led by Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales. But the time for which Vinales led was through the portion of the day that is of little interest, because the track is covered in sand, having not been used since last November, and the Qatari sun is beating down on it during the afternoon.

These conditions mean that testing in Qatar is of little use in regards to the season as a whole, but the final two or three hours of each day are useful to prepare for the Qatar Grand Prix, which will open the season in just under three weeks. (Normally the gap between the final preseason test and the first race is only two weeks, but the FIA World Endurance Championship is racing at Lusail the week before MotoGP heads there for its own season opener, meaning availability is limited.)

When the sun fell, the Ducatis rose, and above them all was Francesco Bagnaia, who missed out on a personal best lap of the Lusail International Circuit by 0.004 seconds with his 1:52.040. Luca Marini’s record from Q2 at last year’s Qatar Grand Prix is in tact for now.

Bagnaia was 0.220 seconds ahead of Jorge Martin, while Fabio Di Giannantonio, Enea Bastianini, and Alex Marquez meant Ducati filled 50 per cent of the top 10 positions.

But other manufacturers showed strongly, too: Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales were third and sixth, respectively, for Aprilia; Brad Binder was fourth for KTM; Johann Zarco was the top Honda in ninth; and Fabio Quartararo completed the top 10 as the best Yamaha rider of the day.

Raul Fernandez had broken his pelvis and hip at the Sepang Test on his fourth lap, but he was able to top day one in Qatar at one point, ending the day in 12th on the newly starred-and-striped RS-GP for Trackhouse Racing.

Marc Marquez’ adaptation to the Ducati Desmosedici GP23 continues at this test - he finished the first day in Qatar in 16th.

The second day of the Qatar test will also be the final one - after tomorrow, the next MotoGP action will be on 8 March when FP1 for the Qatar Grand Prix kicks off the 2024 season.

Full results from the first day of the 2024 MotoGP Qatar Test are below.

2024 Qatar MotoGP Test Results, Day 1

2024 Sepang MotoGP Test, Day 3

Reigning MotoGP World Champion Francesco Bagnaia has ended the first official MotoGP test of the year as the fastest rider in Sepang, setting a new outright lap record.

Because it was set during a test, and not in qualifying or the race, Bagnaia’s lap record only counts as an outright record, and not an ‘official’ one. His 1:56.682 was a historic first sub-1:57 lap time for a MotoGP bike at the Sepang International Circuit, set on only Bagnaia’s eighth lap of the day and unbeaten for the remainder of the third and final day of the Sepang Test.

It meant that, after KTM topped all three days of last week’s Shakedown test, Ducati was fastest on all three days of this week’s official test, and with three different riders: Jorge Martin on day one, Enea Bastianini on day two, and Bagnaia on day three.

Although Bagnaia’s time was exceptional, Martin was not too far behind on a 1:56.854, 0.172 seconds adrift of Bagnaia. Importantly for Martin, he had found more comfort with Ducati’s new aerodynamic package on the third day - after day two, Martin was favouring the 2023 package. A further 0.061 seconds back of Martin was Enea Bastianini in third place, while Alex Marquez completed an all-Ducati top four, and was the final rider inside the 1:57 barrier.

Aleix Espargaro, in fifth on the leading Aprilia, missed out on a 1:56 by 0.092 seconds, while Marc Marquez was almost two-tenths-of-a-second further behind Espargaro in sixth, and Brad Binder was seventh thanks to a late time attack from the #33. It also meant he beat Pedro Acosta overall in the test to be the fastest KTM rider, while Acosta finished ninth.

Fabio Di Giannantonio was between them in eighth, but it was his long run pace that really stood out, as reported by by Peter McLaren of Visordown sister site Crash.net..

The best Honda rider was Joan Mir in 10th, while Fabio Quartararo was the fastest Yamaha in 11th place, both in the overall times and on day three alone.

Full results from the third and final day of the 2024 Sepang MotoGP Test are below.

2024 Sepang MotoGP Test Results, Day 3

2024 Sepang MotoGP Test, Day 2

The 2024 Sepang MotoGP Test is now two-thirds done, with the second of three days ticked off by all riders.

Well, almost. Raul Fernandez crashed on day one of the test, a crash he blamed on some oil on the track surface. He was forced to withdraw from the rest of the test, citing fractures in his hip.

That left only Miguel Oliveira in action for the Trackhouse Racing team, and he fulfilled an important role for Aprilia on Day 2. He rode in front of Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro for a few laps so Aprilia could gather more data on its overheating issue in warmer climates. It’s expected that this issue will only be resolved in the second half of 2024, but before MotoGP heads back to Asia.

In terms of lap times, the best Aprilia could do was fourth-fastest courtesy of the aforementioned Espargaro. He lapped in 1:57.446, which put him inside the pole position time of Francesco Bagnaia last year, but 0.3 seconds off the new lap record pace set by the fastest riders of today.

Fastest of all was Enea Bastianini, whose only podium in 2023 came when he won the Malaysian Grand Prix. His 1:57.134 came in the final half-hour of the day and beat the 1:57.273 that Jorge Martin had set on his ninth lap. Bastianini’s new lap record raises the possibility of the first-ever sub-1:57 lap of Sepang being set tomorrow. 

After KTM’s domination of last week’s Shakedown, Ducati has topped both days of the official test. But KTM is still there, with Brad Binder third-fastest on day two, under 0.2 seconds slower than Bastianini.

Francesco Baganaia (5th), Fabio Di Giannantonio (6th), and Alex Marquez (7th) made it five Ducatis in the top seven places, while Pedro Acosta continued his impressive preseason with the eighth-fastest time. Marco Bezzecchi (9th) and Joan Mir - the fastest Honda in 10th place - completed the top 10.

Fabio Quartararo was 11th, the final rider under the 1:58 barrier. He bemoaned the Yamaha’s inability to make a step in lap time with a fresh, soft-compound rear tyre in a time attack scenario. But, he topped the speed charts, indicating Yamaha has indeed found some power out of its inline-four.

14th on paper seems like a pretty disastrous day for Marc Marquez (who is still yet to crash on a Ducati - yesterday’s reports of a crash were actually timing screen errors, instead, he had stopped because he thought his bike had a problem). However, the reality is a little more encouraging, because he did not do a time attack, and instead focused on a half-race-distance simulation in anticipation of the MotoGP Sprint that will once again be at every round in 2024.

Full times from the second day of the Sepang MotoGP Test are below.

2024 Sepang MotoGP Test Results, Day 2

MotoGP Sepang Test - Day 1

The 2024 MotoGP season inches closer, and the start of the first official test of the season in Sepang is proof of that. Jorge Martin was fastest on the opening day, while technical troubles hampered Marc Marquez' progress.

Martin's time-topping lap was a 1:57.951, putting him around 0.5 seconds shy of Francesco Bagnaia's all-time lap record from last year's Malaysian Grand Prix. It meant that Martin was the first rider to lap in under 1:58 at Sepang this year and, after the end of day one, he is still the only rider to go sub-1:58.

Pedro Acosta continued his swift adaptation to MotoGP, finishing the day second overall, around three-hundredths-of-a-second slower than his best time from day three of last week's Sepang Shakedown.

0.008 seconds slower than Acosta was Fabio Quartararo in what was an encouraging performance from the Yamaha rider. A 1:58.228 put the Frenchman about 0.2 seconds off his best qualifying lap from Q2 at last year's GP, so not bad for his third day of riding this year.

Fabio Di Giannantonio picked up where he left off last year, with a fourth place. He was around a tenth slower than Quartararo, and 0.032 seconds ahead of Enea Bastianini in fifth.

Maverick Vinales led the Aprilia charge in sixth, half-a-second slower than Martin, and just ahead of Alex Marquez, whose new teammate, Marc Marquez, had two technical issues during the day, and then crashed (his first on a Ducati) at turn 15 before setting the ninth-fastest time.

Marco Bezzecchi split the Marquez brothers in eighth, while Johann Zarco was the fastest Honda in 10th. Reigning double MotoGP World Champion Francesco Bagnaia was 16th-fastest.

Technically speaking, it was Ducati who brought the most new pieces to day one of the Sepang Test, although it's also notable that GasGas' Augusto Fernandez (21st) had a carbon frame from KTM.

Ducati, though, had two new fairings for Michele Pirro to try. Pirro is continuing on from his work with the Ducati test team last week to work with Franco Morbidelli's crew in the Pramac garage this week, since Morbidelli is unable to ride following a crash at Portimao while riding a Ducati Panigale V4 S.

The two aerodynamic solutions tried by Pirro use a regular, narrow frame, without the bulbous lower section, and add, instead of downwash ducts, either upward- or downward-curved wings. The downward wings look to be shaped in the same way as the regular downwash ducts, but there are three of them and they aren't closed, while the upward ones look like regular downforce-generating wings, just placed very low on the fairing. In both cases, the wing is not connected back to the fairing by a second plane. New, larger front and side wings were also tried by Pirro.

Aprilia caught attention for their running of an aero rake on the back of Miguel Oliveira's 2024 RS-GP for Trackhouse. Ultimately, the rake is just there for measuring airflow, and its position on the back of the tail unit indicates Aprilia wants to check the effectiveness of its newly designed tail section. The underseat diffuser is likely there to try to reduce drag, by helping the airflow out of the rear of the bike merge more efficiently back into the ambient air.

Full results from day one of the official 2024 MotoGP Sepang Test are below.

2024 MotoGP Sepang Test Results, Day 1

Sepang Shakedown

The Sepang Shakedown took place in the week before the official Sepang Test. Historically, it has been used by manufacturers to, as its name suggests, shakedown the new bikes with test riders to make sure everything is working correctly before the official riders get on track. Numerous things were debuted by the factories at this year's test, and concessions allowed the official riders from Honda and Yamaha to take part.

KTM

As a team without concessions, KTM's Sepang Shakedown running was limited to three riders, albeit those three riders are all well capable in a MotoGP field. Dani Pedrosa topped the first day, new testing recruit Pol Espargaro was fastest on day two, and 2024 MotoGP rookie Pedro Acosta ended day three fastest of all.

Even at a visual level, there were a number of new pieces brought to the Shakedown by KTM, including new aerodynamics. These included a new front intake, larger front wing main plane, and an innovative new front mudguard wing.

The most visible thing KTM brought to the Shakedown, though, was the speed and pace of Tech3 GasGas' Pedro Acosta, who was comfortably within one second of the lap record by the end of the final day.

Ducati

Ducati also brought a significant aerodynamic update, with a revised fairing. Effectively, the new fairing seeks to combine the benefits of the Aprilia-pioneered 'bulbous' fairing, with the larger bottom section, and the design pioneered by Ducati, with the downwash ducts. Both designs are intended to help create a mid-corner ground effect, and the ducts also help to reduce drag. 

Aprilia

Aprilia's aerodynamic revision was perhaps as radical as either of the above manufacturers. There was a new tail section, designed into an aerodynamic device itself rather than a platform to which an aerodynamic device could be attached, like Ducati's 'stegosaurus' wings or KTM's rear wing. This new tail is combined with a new front fairing, which is an evolution of Aprilia's established 'moustache' shape with a new top plane added. The ground effect portion of the lower fairing was also modified, with a small vein added to the upper part, and the top surface moulded into the bottom plane of new side wings. Finally, a new wheel cover on the rear wheel was brought to the Shakedown from Noale.

Honda

Honda is in a rebuild phase now, and that its 2023 bike was absent from the Shakedown is a sign that it is progressing in the right direction. The most obvious addition brought by Honda to Sepang was a new set of vertical wings, comparable but not identical to the aforementioned 'stegosaurus' wings, placed in front of the new, lower rear wing that HRC debuted at a private test last month in Jerez. Honda had two bike specs at the Shakedown - one heavily based on the prototype tested at Valencia last year, and one with the same Valencia-based derivation but with the addition of a new engine.

Yamaha

Like Honda's, Yamaha's 2024 will be one of rebuilding after a disastrous 18 months of MotoGP. And, like Honda, Yamaha turned up with a not insignificant amount of aerodynamic upgrades, and a new engine, for the Sepang Shakedown. The aerodynamics combines an Aprilia-style front wing with downwash ducts on the lower part of the fairing that resemble the ones Ducati has used since Austria 2023. The square rear wing was brought back, too, and the engine was reported to have more power, but also too much aggression in throttle application.

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