MotoGP is back! Which stables did best in Qatar and which have a lot of catching up to do?

The pinnacle of motorcycle sport, MotoGP, has successfully completed the final pre-season test in Qatar at the Lusail circuit. Ducati entered the two-day event as the fastest on paper from the opening sessions in Malaysia, thanks to reigning World Champion Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia. Could this Italian winning combination confirm its form in the Qatari desert? How did the other European factories Aprilia and KTM fare? And was the Japanese track in Yamaha and Honda able to at least partially close the performance gap on the rest of the field?

MotoGP hosted two official pre-season tests in the first two months of the 2024 calendar year. The first took place over three days in tropical Malaysia, followed by two days in similarly challenging conditions in sand-covered Qatar.

The initial familiarisation rides with the new machines were dominated by Ducati. Their riders, led by three-time champion Pecco Bagnaia, took the top four positions. At least here, the Italian stable proved that its dominance from last year is unlikely to evaporate.

The Lusail circuit will open the 76th edition of MotoGP history dating back to 1949 on the second weekend of March. So it’s not a bad idea to allow the riders to prepare for the new season at the same circuit where it all kicks off again in a few weeks’ time. However, as it will be run after sunset under the glare of hundreds of floodlights, the real fun didn’t begin until after dark, a few hours after the start of both test days.

In the end, the first day worked out best for the man who finished the Malaysian test as the fastest of all. Bagnaia’s best effort was good enough for a time of 1:52.040. A couple of thousandths behind his qualifying attempt from last November’s Qatar GP.

Jorge Martín, who narrowly lost the title battle to Bagnai last season, lost by more than two tenths. In the top 8 we would find machines from European brands Ducati, Aprilia and KTM only. The leading riders on Japanese machines were Johann Zarco (Honda) and Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) in ninth and tenth place respectively.

MotoGP – second day of testing

The second day of testing brought more or less the same progress as the previous one. Once again, everyone had to wait until the local evening for representative times. However, no one managed to unseat the king of this year’s pre-season tests.

Just like the day before, Bagnaia mounted the latest version of his Ducati, with which he will be attacking a hat-trick of premier class titles. And he burnt everyone’s pond with a fantastic time of 1:50.952. He was the only rider to crawl under the one minute and 51 seconds mark, beating the previous outright circuit record by nearly eight tenths.

After Qatar, Aprilia can have high hopes for itself, with three machines in the top six of the overall table. According to these indications, the main rival of Ducati could be the Noale, Italy-based team in 2024. KTM did not do badly either. And newcomer Pedro Acosta, considered by many to be a future MotoGP superstar, was also pleasing.

On the other hand, Honda and Yamaha were the unfortunate stalwarts in the second half of the field. While his former winning machine Marc Márquez took an uplifting fourth place on the Ducati, Honda finished the test in near last place despite positive feedback from the stable thanks to significant improvements to their machines.

Just above them were the only Yamahas in the field. Based purely on these results, we can say that last year’s stable situation will be very similar this year.

Source: MotoGP