MotoGP Official Pre-Season Test | Bagnaia ends Sepang test on top as Ducati fires warning shot

Pecco Bagnaia sent out a warning shot to his rivals after concluding the third and final day of official pre-season testing for the 2024 MotoGP World Championship at Sepang with a huge new lap record as he led a Ducati 1-2-3-4.

The defending double World Champion has maintained a fairly low profile in the run up to day three of the first official test in Malaysia, the Italian putting in the mileage on the new Ducati GP24 rather than chase lap times initially.

However, having seen 2023 MotoGP runner-up Jorge Martin go quickest on Tuesday and his Ducati Lenovo Team counterpart Enea Bastianini savour the spoils on Wednesday, Bagnaia saved his best until last as one of four riders to lap Sepang in under 1m 57secs on Thursday.

Day 3/3 – Headlines at a glance…

• 🚀 Defending MotoGP Champion Pecco Bagnaia obliterates the Sepang lap record with a 1m 56.682s
• ⏱️ He is joined under the magic 1m 57s mark by Jorge Martin, Enea Bastianini and Alex Marquez
• 💥 Falls for Joan Mir (T15) and Fabio di Giannantonio (T9)
• 📋 RESULTS and LAP TIMES below

With rain threatening for the afternoon, the fastest lap times via qualifying simulations came within the opening hour a handful of riders dealing out a steady stream of one-upmanship as records and personal bests were swiftly broken throughout the field.

Among them came the very first-ever laps of the Sepang Circuit in the 1m 56s bracket, a feat that would be repeated on four occasions over the course of the day, each on Ducati machinery. Fastest of them alll was Bagnaia, the factory rider finding a mammoth 0.8s of time over his 2023 Malaysian MotoGP pole position.

His 1m 56.682secs was good enough to out-pace Martin by two tenths on the sister Prima Pramac Ducati GP24, while Bastianini appeared to confirm that strides made with the GP24 as he made it a 1-2-3 lockout for the new Ducati package.

Alex Marquez and Marc Marquez consolidated Ducati’s eye-catching form all-round as they ascended the timesheets on day two to complete the test fourth and sixth respectively on the year-old machine.

The ‘best of the rest’ in fifth place would prove to be Aleix Espargaro, the Aprilia rider leading the challenge to Ducati with a lap just shy of joining his the top four under 1m 57s.

Brad Binder slipped from second to seventh day-to-day as the highest-placed rider not to improve his lap time on the final day aboard his factory KTM. On a fairly static leaderboard that didn’t change much after the busy opening hour, Fabio di Giannantoniol, Pedro Acosta and Joan Mir completed the top ten.

2024 MotoGP Pre-Season Testing | Sepang, Official Testing Results [Combined]

Tuesday [FINAL] | Day 2 of 3 | Conditions – Sunny, Hot

Sepang Circuit | Lap Records