Alex Marquez was quickest in the post-season MotoGP test at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The Gresini Racing team got its hands on the Ducati GP24 that Jorge Martin took to the Championship this year, and Marquez quickly adapted. He tested briefly with the GP23 he had raced this season, and quickly understood that the GP24 had a much easier time extracting the maximum performance from this season’s Michelin tires. “This bike was built around these tires,” he said at the end of the day.
Fabio Quartararo was second after testing a new chassis and new engine. Quartararo says the new chassis turned in better on the brakes, but the bike now needs to drive out of corners better. “The improvements will not happen overnight,” he said, but was pleased by the army of engineers from Japan and Italy in the factory garage. The factory team alone had six bikes to try between Quartararo and Rins, and the Pramac Racing team had two bikes each for Jack Miller and Miguel Oliveira.
Two-time World Champion Francesco Bagnaia was third and said the new Ducati GP25 was better in fast corners and was stronger in the engine department, but it was lacking in braking compared to the GP24 he raced to second in the Championship with 11 wins in 2024. However, he was pleased, saying that the bike was very good for this stage of its development.
Marc Marquez spent very little time on a Ducati GP24 and instead jumped straight into the development process of the factory GP25 he will race next season. He called the handling of the 2025 model different but not better or worse than the 2023 machine, but said the engine was much stronger.
2024 MotoGP World Champion Jorge Martin was not able to talk to the media after the test because he is still contracted to Ducati. Martin took a development Aprilia RS-GP to 11th after a small crash in the middle of the day.
Pedro Acosta said that KTM tried several different aerodynamic devices, looking for a way forward. Note that this configuration does not use the ducts on the lower front fairing that the RC16 has used in the past. Acosta said his final configuration made the bike calmer, because in 2024 it would get “crazy” and shake the handlebars. The only rookie on the grid in 2024, Acosta said he completely understood why all three of the 2025 rookies crashed within a few laps, and said it was normal as they switched from the Pirellis in Moto2 to the Michelins in MotoGP.
Final - Session for BCN MotoGP FP1
