One day after the Spanish Grand Prix, the MotoGP riders used the Jerez – Angel Nieto circuit for a test session, with Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46) being the fastest and with the various factories testing various items. Here is a summary of each team.
At Ducati Lenovo, there wasn’t much news to report, with Francesco Bagnaia doing some work on the geometry of his bike, being the rider who rode the fewest laps (43 laps, 17 less than Lorenzo Savadori, who was the second rider who did the fewest laps ). Still, the world champion finished in fourth place, less than two tenths behind first. Enea Bastianini finished ninth, with 65 laps completed, also with little to say on the Italian’s side.
On the Pramac side, Jorge Martín had a busier day, not least because one of his GP24s had a problem, forcing the Spaniard to lose more than an hour in the garage. Towards the end of the day, Martín crashed at turn 9. Despite everything, the championship leader completed 71 laps and finished tenth. Franco Morbidelli worked on the bike’s ergonomics, taking part in his first test with the Ducati since Valencia last year. The Italian completed 82 valuable laps, also being fast, with the third best time.
The VR46 leaves Jerez with good impressions, after Marco Bezzecchi’s podium on Sunday and Fabio Di Giannantonio’s fastest time on the test day. With no new parts to test in GP23, both were testing new settings, with Diggia leading and Bezzecchi finishing 13th.
At Gresini, Marc Márquez had another 71 laps to adapt to his bike, with the runner-up on Sunday being fifth on Monday. Álex Márquez also leaves Andalusia satisfied, with the 73 completing precisely 73 laps, with eighth place at the end.
Moving over to Aprilia, the factory team had Aleix Espargaró test the height device that Lorenzo Savadori had experimented with during the Grand Prix. Maverick Viñales tested a different rear unit, with the diffuser that Espargaró uses, but the top surface is like the 2023 specification that Viñales prefers. Both pilots ended up testing it. Viñales ended up in second place, with a late time attack and 80 laps completed, with Espargaró in seventh and with 66 laps. Test driver Lorenzo Savadori was 24th and last in the session.
At Trackhouse, as expected, Raúl Fernández was able to test the 2024 RS-GP for the first time, although the Spaniard’s best time was set with the 2023 bike, a time that placed him in 12th position. Miguel Oliveira completed a total of 74 laps and finished 15th, trying out the same hybrid rear unit that the factory drivers tried out.
At KTM, a new aerodynamic fairing was tested, with Brad Binder and Pedro Acosta seen testing it. Binder was the fastest driver within the Pierer Mobility Group, with the South African in sixth, two tenths off first place, with his best lap coming towards the end. Jack Miller ended the day in 17th, with 73 laps, and the Australian admitted that the bike’s vibration problem had not been completely resolved. Also note the participation of Pol Espargaró in this session, with the Spaniard completing 68 laps and finishing 19th, as he prepares to be a wild-card in Mugello.
At GASGAS, Augusto Fernández continued searching for a base setup that would make him more comfortable, and was also seen testing the new KTM fender. The 37 crashed in the final 15 minutes at turn 7, ending the day in 22nd place. Pedro Acosta was classified 11th, just under half a second behind Diggia. In addition to the fairing mentioned above, Acosta also tested an air intake used by Dani Pedrosa over the weekend. The two GASGAS drivers, together, completed 140 laps.
Many eyes were on Yamaha, with a major aerodynamic upgrade for Fabio Quartararo and Álex Rins, with team manager Maio Meregalli also talking about a new chassis. Rins finished the test in 14th, with his best lap coming near the end of his 73 laps, while Quartararo did 84 laps and was 18th. In the end, Rins considered that the new chassis was not a great improvement, with the bike’s turning problems persisting.
At Honda, and starting with the LCR, Takaaki Nakagami and Johann Zarco tried out the bike that Stefan Bradl used over the weekend, although Zarco only did a handful of laps on that bike before returning to his usual one. Nakagami was the fastest in the HRC, in 16th, nine tenths behind first place, although the Japanese said that the new bike “hasn’t changed much”. Johann Zarco finished in 20th place and was the driver with the most laps completed (88).
Finally, at Repsol Honda, Joan Mir and Luca Marini had already tested the new bike in a private test in Barcelona, focusing on other things. Marini tested one of the new chassis that Bradl had also used, but used it with Honda’s usual aerodynamics, also running with the rear wing they used in pre-season testing. Mir already had two Hondas with the traditional specification in the garage, with both riders doing 134 laps together and Mir saying that they tested “a different concept” on the bike.
