a promising day of testing for Marc Marquez and Fabio Quartararo

The recent Spanish world champion Jorge Martin on an Aprilia, Marc Marquez riding an official Ducati, three novices riding a MotoGP for the first time in their career: the traditional end-of-season testing day offered strong images , Tuesday in Montmelo (Spain). Less than 48 hours after the end of the season, marked by Martin's triumph against double Italian title holder Francesco Bagnaia, several thousand spectators had taken over the main grandstand of the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit bathed in sun to watch the first laps wheel of the pilots on the prototypes of the motorcycles which they will have in 2025. If the best time was achieved by Alex Marquez (Ducati-Gresini) in front of the surprising Frenchman Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha), the moment most awaited by the fans but also the media was seeing his brother Marc, six-time world champion, climbing on his new all-red mount.

Thus, a swarm of journalists and photographers crowded in front of the Ducati garage to see the Catalan dressed in a red overall climb on his new machine stamped with his number 93, while numerous cries of encouragement fell from the stand. While many observers predict that the Spaniard, third in the championship this season, will fight for the title next year, he took the fourth fastest time on Tuesday just behind Francesco Bagnaia, his new teammate. “The feelings with the team and the bike were very good, I felt comfortable straight away. I have noticed improvements, but the fact of not changing manufacturers makes things easier”underlined Marquez. For his debut on the handlebars of an Aprilia, Martin was logically one of the most applauded. If he wore a golden helmet in the morning and a star on his machine, the Madrilenian's Motorcycle on the other hand displayed his number 89 since the former Ducati-Pramac rider has not yet decided whether he would choose to compete with the number 1 next year.

The French in good shape

The Spaniard, who suffered his first minor fall with his new mount, achieved the 11th time. However, he was a little faster than his new teammate, the Italian Marco Bezzecchi (13th). The two French riders, Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) and Johann Zarco (Honda-LCR) had promising tests. The 2021 world champion thus allowed himself the luxury of finishing second with a better time than during qualifying for the Barcelona GP on Saturday. “It was a good day, we tried a lot of pretty interesting things. The new engine gives us more speed with the same agility, the steering taken with the new chassis is good too. On the other hand, there was no improvement on corner exit”explained the Nice resident.

For his part, Zarco took the tenth time and again finished ahead of all the other Honda motorcycles. He even beat Martin, his former teammate at Pramac and brand new world champion. “I'm quite happy with the times, we did some quality laps and tested as many things as possible. There are not only positive things about the new bike and this is important information because it may be necessary to take another direction. My feelings are progressing and I’m riding the bike better and better”appreciated the Avignonnais. The three rookies, the Spaniard Fermin Aldeguer (Ducati-Gresini), the Japanese Ai Ogura (Aprilia-Trackhouse) and the Thai Somkiat Chantra (Honda-LCR) all suffered a fall and logically finished at the bottom of the timesheet with respectively the 20th, 21st and 23rd times.