What we learned from MotoGP’s post-season test

Here are all the major talking points from Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Marquez fastest (no, not that one)

It wasn’t Marc Marquez on top in Spain. Instead, his brother Alex was quickest for Gresini.

He set a commanding pace, nearly four tenths of a second clear of Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.

“I felt better in each outing with the new bike,” said Marquez.

“I did a run with the 23 this morning before riding with the new one. I really liked the latter; I had fun and it showed.

“I crashed while trying to find the limit, but I could have easily avoided that. Now we’ll relax a little, but I admit I’m looking forward to 2025.”

Bagnaia and Marquez to fight for title

MotoGP made a big song and dance about the 2024 title fight between Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia, perhaps because they know it won’t happen again in 2025.

Marc Marquez didn’t have the benefit of being on the Desmosedici GP24 this year. Gresini and VR46 both raced with the older GP23.

At the factory team, Marquez and Bagnaia will ride the same GP25.

If testing is anything to go by, there’ll be very little to separate then. Marquez was fourth fastest and only 0.05s slower than Bagnaia.

“It was good to get back to work as a factory rider,” said Marquez.

“In factory teams, testing is always a little different—you have to try a lot of things and be as precise as possible with your feedback.

“Today, we mainly focused on the development of the GP25, trying to determine what was better and what was worse compared to the bike I rode this year.

“At the end, we also made a comparison with the GP24. Some aspects still need improvement, as it’s not easy to show up at the track with a new bike and already be at the level of the one that raced last year.

“The good thing is that both my feedback and Pecco’s were very similar, which will help simplify the engineers’ work at home over the winter. Overall, the balance is positive, and I’m happy.”

Oh, and doesn’t Marc Marquez look good in red?

Pramac comes crashing down to earth

After winning the riders’ championship with Martin, it was a quick turnaround for Pramac to make an overnight manufacturer switch.

Gone are the Desmosedici GP24 pair and in are two of Yamaha’s YZR-M1 bikes.

It’s been wholesale change at the team with Martin off to Aprilia and Franco Morbidelli at VR46. In their place are Jack Miller and Miguel Oliveira.

It would be unfair to read too much into timesheets given it’s day one for the team and the riders. Oliveira was 17th and completed 60 laps to end up 1.335s away from the fastest time. Miller, meanwhile, was 22nd and 2.222s slower than the fastest time after 70 laps.

One question mark over Martinator

Fresh off winning this year’s title, there’s a question on everyone’s lips. Will Jorge Martin run #1 in 2025?

Martin ran a bike with a giant #89 down the side but various paraphernalia in the Aprilia garage featured the #1 embedded in the #89.

The Spaniard was 11th fastest, one second away from Marquez. Fresh from VR46, Marco Bezzecchi was 13th fastest.

Miller, meanwhile, was 22nd and 2.222s slower than the fastest time after 70 laps.

When finding the limit goes wrong but somehow right 😅

Rookie @somkiat35 has gone down at T10 💥#BarcelonaTest pic.twitter.com/NPjRxLCr21

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) November 19, 2024

Rookies push the limits early

Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini), Somkiat Chantra (LCR Honda), and Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Racing) all pushed the envelope on day one.

All three crashed as they got to grips with the faster MotoGP bikes.

Aldeguer was the quickest of the rookie trio in 20th, 1.7s off the pace set by his teammate Marquez.

“I’m very, very happy with this first day,” said Aldeguer.

“I felt comfortable on the bike straight away and felt fast. Braking is the area that impressed me the most, and generally speaking it was an incredible day.

“There’s plenty to do, of course, but the atmosphere within the team is incredible and, crash aside, I think we did a good job.

“I still need to get used to everything, but I’m very happy. Without the crash, I surely would have done a little better lap-time wise.”

They weren’t the only ones pushing hard. Enea Bastianini wrecked his RC16 on day one with KTM Tech3.

Results: MotoGP post-season test, Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya