he was impressed by the bike's
grunt when exiting the turn. "The
earlier you pick up, the earlier
you go. This is fantastic for my
riding style because I pick up the
bike very early. And you always
have power pushing you out."
The only factory with a nega
-
tive air was Honda. Joan Mir
(15th) was quietly simmering
at the lack of updates available
to try. "The reality is that I didn't
have a lot of things to test; I had
already tested everything before.
You expect more from a test as
important as this one. How can
I not be angry? There are times
allotted for things to arrive, but
here they haven't."
It wasn't all bad for Honda,
however. Teammate Luca Marini
(18th) was more optimistic after
having a good deal more to try
than the Majorcan, including a
new prototype that will be the
base for HRC moving into 2025.
"Obviously, it's still not as fast
as the standard bike that we had
during the weekend, but there is
something positive we found."
"It's a huge change, the frame.
On the front part, maybe there
is something good, something
positive. On the rear part, still, we
need to improve. But there are
quite more settings that we had
to try. They made a huge change
to understand the direction for
the future. Some things are good
and maybe some things are not."
New HRC test rider Aleix Es
-
pargaro was 14th and just four-
tenths off fastest Honda rider
Johann Zarco and was reported
-
ly not slow to tell HRC engineers
of the RC213V's shortcomings.
Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini
Ducati) was the fastest of the
rookies in 20th, a place ahead
of Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia)
and three ahead of Somkiat
Chantra (LCR Honda).
A selection of riders sampled
another version of a new Mi-
chelin front tire that will be intro-
duced in 2026. The construction
is more robust to make it more
adept at dealing with the high
loads placed on it by MotoGP
machines' aerodynamics setups.
Asked whether he'd like to see
the tire introduced a year early,
Marini was unequivocal. "Yes.
It's ready."
Neil Morrison
TOP 10
1. Alex Marquez (Duc) 1'38.803
2. Fabio Quartararo (Yam) +0.396
3. Francesco Bagnaia (Duc) +0.595
4. Marc Marquez (Duc) +0.651
5. Raul Fernandez (Apr) +0.668
6. Brad Binder (KTM) +0.705
7. Franco Morbidelli (Duc) +0.762
8. Alex Rins (Yam) +0.765
9. Pedro Acosta (Duc) +0.768
10. Johann Zarco (Hon) +0.813
WIND
IN THE
P54
Fermin Aldeguer was the fastest of the MotoGP rookies.
Honda's Joan Mir wasn't impressed on a
bike that lacked updated technology.
