Barcelona’s Catalunya Circuit hosted the first official test following the completion of the 2024 series. This was the first opportunity to see riders on their 2025 bikes, and many of the riders switching to new teams for 2025.
Although times at a test like this can be misleading, it was not surprising to see Alex Marquez (Ducati) fastest on the GP24 bike that just won the World championship under Jorge Martin. The talented former champ Fabio Quartararo finished second quickest on the latest iteration of his Yamaha.
Enea Bastianini and Maverick Vinales made their debut in the KTM garage, while newly crowned champ Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi completed their first laps on their Aprilia machinery.
Aleix Espargaro, just two days after his retirement from racing, made his debut as a Honda test rider and proceeded to lap faster than both of the factory riders Joan Mir and Luca Marini. Aleix reportedly provided valuable feedback to Honda personnel.
For full results of the official Barcelona test, visit the MotoGP site here.
Will KTM field a MotoGP team next year? I thought the company is in the process of imploding.
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I’m guessing the 2025 season will be boring because it’ll be a contest between Marquez and Bagnaia. Personally I don’t like Marquez’s “win at anything” style or constantly hearing the commentators gushing over him. So, no thanks, I’m not going to sign up for MotoGP.com in 2025.
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Pfffft
😁😶
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Is there still a pay wall around these races? You can’t just use a VPN to pretend you are in UK or wherever?
I’ve never watched a race at home. Up until 2002 I would watch the races at a bar with my friends. After that I would seek out a highlight reel to see some incident people were talking about. I quit doing that because I always seemed to be tuning in to see what sort of blatant unsportsmanlike conduct they were letting Marquez get away with. Which often as not was basically watching people crash.
In the end, if I am going to pay money to watch people race. I’ll pay an entry fee and race an event.
The odd thing about fans is that the biggest fan I know of any given activity never competed in that activity. That even includes hockey. I know this guy who grew up in Minnesota who can name every player of both teams of any game as they take the ice. Yet he was one of the like five male Minnesotans who never even learned how to skate. Football? I know a great big powerful man from Wisconsin. He is the very image of a professional football player. But he never played football. He flies all over the country to go to every game. He watches everyone one, in any weather, in shorts and a T shirt.
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The GP races were shown on Tru TV here in the states which is available on most cable, satellite and streaming services. Moto2 and 3 races were not included.
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I played hockey but did not watch it alot.
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I played all the traditional TV sports. I thought it odd that the coaches never discussed the rules of the game. Most of the rest of the kids knew them from watching the sports on television. I learned the rules one at a time by breaking them. At least in hockey I could generally ask the penalty box guy explain to me the rule that I broke. In other sports the coach just gets mad and calls you an idiot for knot knowing.
By the seventh grade I learned that I am not a team player. So I switched to individual activities. The football coach actually sent goons to meet me at the bike rack the day I arrived with my gear to return it. Then he bit a big chunk out of my backside in front of the whole gym class. Real gem of a guy. Maybe he taught at the junior high school so he never really had to grow up.
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It is a very black Friday indeed. Malcom Smith passed away and KTM filed a self administration thing.
It’s a pity that KTM doesn’t have a market busting street bike ready. There isn’t a single Kramer motorcycle that doesn’t weigh twenty pounds less than the new extra corpulent DRZ down there. Lose the bodywork and add some lights to street bike versions made with the same level of competence. The magazines would lose their minds and everybody would be running out to buy one before they gained a hundred pounds. Bang! Company saved.
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Mixed testing at least.
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Like early qualifying these test sessions really don’t play out the actual race pace. The only thing truly interesting is that a retired racer is faster than both of the factory Honda riders on the same equipment. Honda preached for years that the motorcycle wins the race but the rider loses the race, this won’t inspire Honda to improve vastly the equipment.
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A **TWO DAYS** retired racer…
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Perhaps, but test rider was the best gig the guy could get. I think the Honda team riders have had enough crashes that they are becoming timid. They have been crashy bikes for a while now.
I wonder if Honda has ever been this bad for this long.
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Aliex could’ve stayed with Aprilia as long as he continued to ride like he has been doing. That he was faster than all but one of the other Hondas on a completely unfamiliar machine speaks to his capability. Retiring was 100% his choice. He’s been at this a long time and he’s ready to scale back.
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While it’s a little early to tell. Yamaha seems to have stepped up to the plate and given Quartararo something to work with.
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I wonder about the engine under the seat.
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