As expected, Ducati dominated the 2025 MotoGP Winter Test at Sepang International Circuit (SIC) over the previous week, with Alex Marquez of Gresini Racing firing out a 1:56.493 lap time. He was followed by Ducati Lenovo Team’s Francesco Bagnaia just 0.007 of a second behind.
Notable is the fact Marquez was riding the Desmosedici GP24 while Bagnaia mounted the Desmosedici GP25. While Winter Test is not necessarily a true indication of a MotoGP rider’s or bike’s true performance, it can be expected the 2024 Ducati will perhaps dominate the first quarter of this year’s racing as Ducati gathers data for the 2025 MotoGP machine.
However, biggest surprise of the three days of Winter Test was Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP, rider Fabio Quartararo clocking a 1:56.724, with the YZR-M1 showing a very decent turn of speed. Quartararo was consistent on his lap times on day three of testing, with the Frenchman showing his pleasure in the media debrief.
The Yamaha’s performance even impressed Davide Tardozzi, Ducati Lenovo’s team manager, who implied the Italian team could face a credible challenge from the Iwata team this year. For comparison, Quartararo’s team mate, Alex Rins, came in tenth while the new Yamaha satellite team riders, Prima Pramac Yamaha’s Jack Miller and Miguel Oliveira, were twelfth and seventeenth, respectively.
The other Japanese team, Honda Racing Corporation (HRC), saw riders Johann Zarco and Joan Mir pushing the RC123V faster than ever before at Sepang, coming in seventh and eighth, respectively. New HRC technical chief Romano Albesiano said the team will be returning to Sepang instead of a planned test in Portugal.
Meanwhile, KTM, despite the financial troubles faced by its parent company, saw Pedro Acosta put his Red Bull KTM Factory Racing machine in sixth place, a best ever lap time at SIC for the Austrian team. Team mate Brad Binder was not as lucky with a technical issue halting play during the Sprint simulation, forcing the South African into thirteenth position.
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