MotoGP Official Pre-Season Test | Martin in charge, Acosta stars, Yamaha speedy [Day 1]

Jorge Martin established a strong early benchmark as official pre-season testing for the 2024 MotoGP World Championship season officially got underway at the Sepang Circuit.

The 2023 MotoGP runner-up was barely headed throughout the eight-hour session, Martin gradually chipping away at his best time to top the timesheets as the only rider to dip below 1m 58secs with a 1m 57. 951secs lap.

While the Spaniard’s pace on the Prima Pramac Ducati GP24 was arguably no surprise, there were some interesting notes to take away even at this early stage as rookie Pedro Acosta chased him closest with 1m 58.220secs effort on the Red Bull GasGas Factory Tech 3 KTM.

The newcomer has benefited from an extra three days of track time as per the regulations and it showed as he got close to the 1m 58.189secs personal best he achieved last week.

Day 1/3 – Headlines at a glance…

• 🔴 Red flag due to track conditions within 10mins after Raul Fernandez and Pecco Bagnaia crash shortly after leaving pit-lane at Turn 11
• 💥 Bagnaia suffers small get-off and quickly returns to pits and Fernandez damages Trackhouse Racing Aprilia and takes a trip to medical centre
• 🔧 💥 Marc Marquez suffering persistent technical issues on Gresini Ducati – stopping twice on track – before crashing at Turn 15 at the four-hour mark
• ⏱️ Jorge Martin sets early pace as first rider into 1m 57s bracket, rookie Pedro Acosta chasing him by being fastest in Sectors 1 and 3
• 💥 Offs for Augusto Fernández (T9), Takaaki Nakagami (T2), Alex Marquez (T2), Miguel Oliveira (T12), Marco Bezzecchi (T4), Jack Miller (T2)
• 🚀 Fabio Quartararo turn heads by turning in one of the fastest top speeds on the Yamaha!
• RESULTS and LAP TIMES below

In third place, Fabio Quartararo also looked strong on the Monster Energy Yamaha M1 having also had two days extra track time last week. However, the Frenchman’s effort was headlined by his M1 posting the fourth fastest speed through the traps (335km/h – 4kmh faster than he managed in the Malaysian MotoGP race weekend

What threatened to be a somewhat indifferent start to testing for Ducati turned into a positive one during the afternoon as six of its Desmosedicis broke into the top ten by the flag, including new recruit Marc Marquez.

Other than Martin out front, Fabio di Giannantonio and Enea Bastianini – winner of the Malaysian MotoGP in October – were in fine fettle on their respective VR46 Racing and Ducati Team machines in fourth and fifth.

Maverick Vinales led the Aprilia challenge in sixth after making a marked improvement before lunchtime, while the brothers Marquez gave Gresini Racing a positive start on paper by ending the first day of testing seventh and ninth after both posted late gains.

It wasn’t a trouble-free day for the independent Italian outfit though. Both riders suffered minor crashes – Alex at Turn 12, Marc at Turn 15 – while the six-time MotoGP World Champion twice stopped on course with technical issues, leaving him muddling towards the bottom of the timesheets until the final hour.

Splitting the pair in eighth place was Marco Bezzecchi, who was another of several riders to experience get-offs over the course of the day. Like Marquez, he gravitated towards the bottom end of the timesheets before leaping into the top ten late on, albeit just before his day ended with an off at Turn 4.

Honda endured a modest start to the year with only Johann Zarco breaching the top ten on the LCR machine in tenth place, just ahead of the man he replaced in the Monegasque team, Yamaha’s Alex Rins.

Beyond Acosta, it was a quiet start to proceedings for KTM with Brad Binder managing a late improvement that was only good enough for 12th, while Jack Miller – who was the most active rider of the day with 69 laps – could only manage 18th after taking a fall in the final minutes.

Similarly, Pecco Bagnaia opted against chasing lap times as he settled for 16th at the end of the day. The defending champion got his year off to a disastrous start when he slipped off at Turn 11 on his first out-lap at the top of the session.

He was then followed into the gravel trap – more resoundingly – by Raul Fernandez, who gave Trackhouse Racing a repair job to do just minutes into its first-ever MotoGP session when he high-sided heavily. With the session red flagged to check on the state of the tricky right-hand corner, Fernandez spent some time in the medical centre but returned to track to see out the session.

2024 MotoGP Pre-Season Testing | Sepang, Official Testing Results

Tuesday [FINAL] | Day 1 of 3 | Conditions – Sunny, Hot

Sepang Circuit | Lap Records