Pecco Bagnaia, the reigning champion, shattered the previous lap record at Qatar’s Lusail circuit as the MotoGP pre-season testing for 2024 came to a close.
– Bagnaia leads the way for Ducati in first and second place.
– Ducati and Aprilia dominate the top 10 positions.
– Marquez shows improvement but also experiences his first crash.
This marked a clean sweep for Bagnaia, who had also been the fastest in the previous test at Sepang. With two hours remaining in the seven-hour session, he posted a time of 1m50.952s, beating Luca Marini’s pole record from the previous year by eight-tenths of a second.
The track conditions were ideal, as evidenced by 10 other riders surpassing the previous lap record. However, only one rider came close to challenging Bagnaia’s time, his Ducati teammate Enea Bastianini, who finished just a tenth of a second behind. This performance concludes a pre-season in which Bastianini showed significant improvement compared to his struggles in 2023.
At Aprilia, Aleix Espargaro once again led the way in third place, despite a crash that briefly halted the session. His teammates Raul Fernandez and Maverick Vinales followed closely in fifth and sixth place, respectively.
Fernandez, who missed most of the Sepang test due to injuries sustained in an early crash, initially rode a 2023-spec Aprilia for the new satellite team Trackhouse. However, he may receive an upgrade later in the season.
Six-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez made significant progress in terms of single-lap pace, setting the fastest lap on a 2023-spec Ducati and finishing fourth overall, sandwiched between Espargaro and his Aprilia colleagues.
Although he was 0.383s behind the leader, Marquez ended the day with a fall at Turn 4, resulting in scuffed leathers on the right side. Nevertheless, he remained in good spirits upon returning to the pit box.
Three more Ducatis, Jorge Martin (Pramac), Fabio Di Giannantonio, and Marco Bezzecchi (both VR46), secured positions in the top 10.
This meant that the top 10 positions were dominated by Italian bikes, with the exception of Brad Binder, who made a late improvement to finish ninth for KTM.
Fabio Quartararo was the fastest rider representing Yamaha, with a time one-tenth quicker than his teammate Alex Rins. However, Quartararo only managed to secure 14th place overall, over a second slower than Bagnaia.
This performance strongly suggests that Yamaha continues to struggle with single-lap pace.
The Yamaha M1s were faster than any of the Honda RC213Vs, but Honda’s program was hindered by illness affecting factory riders Joan Mir and Luca Marini. Mir’s mileage was limited as a result, and he crashed late in the session while on a potentially fast lap. The same fate befell LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco, who nonetheless finished as the top representative for Honda.
The MotoGP season will commence at the Lusail circuit in early March, with a sprint race scheduled for March 9th and the grand prix race taking place on March 10th.
According to the Source the-race.com