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At the end of these six days of testing, the riders did not hold back, almost putting on a qualifying show. Thanks to a very rubberized track and favourable weather, four Ducati riders broke through the 1m56s barrier, with Bagnaia the record holder with his 1m56.682s, lowering his track record by 8 tenths. Jorge Martin and Enea Bastianini completed the quartet of Ducati riders, who with their GP24s together with that of Bagnaia demonstrated the step forward of the creation from Borgo Panigale. Just off the "imaginary podium" was a very fast Alex Marquez on his GP23.
Pernat commented:
"As expected, these tests too were a sort of "fox hunt" by the manufacturers rivalling Ducati. One of the innovations that perhaps went unnoticed were the new Michelin compounds, promoted for their braking resistance but with some doubt on the part of the riders about cornering. There were also many sprint race tests, which have become a fundamental component of the format".
Marc Marquez himself responded to his own competitiveness, playing things down about expectations regarding the championship, on a Ducati which is competitive but which he is still getting to know, even if the conditions are good and the pace seems good. The same goes for the rookie Acosta, very fast during the tests but he too tried to play things down while waiting for the season to start.
The word then passed to two of the deus ex-machina of the development of today's MotoGP, Gigi Dall'Igna and Romano Albesiano:
"We are satisfied with these first tests - intervened the Ducati engineer - but it wouldn’t be smart to make predictions without having first seen the results of the first races".
"I agree with Gigi - echoed Albesiano - as they say the championship ends in November. Ducati is certainly the benchmark at the moment but in Aprilia we try to make his life a little more difficult!" - he joked.
The topic then move on to a rider market that promises to be explosive with many contracts expiring.
"I'm not the one who deals with that - begins Albesiano - but we have four very competitive riders".
"The transfer market will start soon with so many contracts expiring - continued Dall'Igna - and I think that surely someone will move soon".
