VALENCIA POST-SEASON / NOVEMBER 28, 2023
RICARDO TORMO CIRCUIT / VALENCIA, SPAIN
MOTOGP I WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TEST
P54
has endured over the past few seasons and now
their golden goose Marc Marquez, has left for
greener (redder?) pastures. It's crunch time for
Repsol Honda.
Incumbent Joan Mir, suffering pain in his neck
from a crash in the season-ending Valencian
MotoGP and working with Marquez's former
crew chief Santi Hernandez for the first time,
went 13th fastest after 69 laps. The former
World Champion ended the test happy, noting
it was the first time he'd seen any evolution of
the RC213V since joining the team this time one
year ago.
"It was a good day today and I am pleased with
what we have seen from the prototype bike," Mir
said. "We were trying things until the very end
of the day, and we didn't have a chance to do a
proper time attack, but this is not the focus—our
pace was good, and the developments are posi
-
tive. There is still work to do, but the first steps
are in the right direction."
New teammate Luca Marini fared slightly better
in 10th after 72 laps as he got used to charac
-
teristics of the often-recalcitrant Repsol Honda,
DUCATI LENOVO TEAM
World Champion Francesco Bagnaia and team-
mate Enea Bastianini were handed a new GP24 to
test with a revised engine that gave the number
one a reason to smile.
Bagnaia pumped out 51 laps of the 2.48-mile
Ricardo Tormo Circuit to finish 11th overall, Bas-
tianini completing five extra laps for eighth fast-
est, leaving both excited at next year's prospects.
"I'm satisfied with today—the engine is good,"
Bagnaia said. "It will be crucial to work on certain
aspects, but compared to last year, we already
have a good starting point, and above all, there is
still a lot of room for growth."
Bastianini concurred, saying, "The feeling with
the new engine was also positive: it definitely
still needs some tweaking, but overall, the im
-
pact was positive. We would also have liked to
try a time attack, but the conditions today were
not ideal. It was very windy, and I preferred not
to risk it."
REPSOL HONDA
Some 25 extra HRC engineers were flown in from
Japan to try and stem the bleeding Repsol Honda
Joan Mir said it was the first time he'd seen any
evolution of the RC213V since joining the team.
Francesco Bagnaia was pleased with his GP24, noting
that the improved power delivery suited his style.
