Luca Marini led the way as the 2023 MotoGP season began in earnest with the single day test at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo following the Valencia Grand Prix.
The VR46 Ducati rider’s 1:30.032s – an effort 0.111s quicker than his qualifying time for the Valencia GP – left him 0.225s clear of Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales, Marini having completed a total of 78 laps across the day’s running.
The sister VR46 entry of Marco Bezzecchi ended the day third fastest ahead of Miguel Oliveira, who was an impressive fourth overall at the end of his first day riding Aprilia machinery for the RNF squad, the Portuguese racer lapping only a tenth-of-a-second slower than he managed in Saturday’s qualifying test on his KTM.
Aleix Espargaro was fifth on the sister Aprilia ahead of Gresini Ducati’s Fabio Di Gianantonio and KTM’s Brad Binder, the South African – who finished second in the Valencia GP – narrowly heading the Pramac-prepared Ducati of fellow Valencia rostrum finisher Jorge Martin.
Fabio Quartararo completed the most laps of the day with a commanding 92 as he tested Yamaha’s new engine as the Japanese manufacturer looks to try and take the fight to Ducati in 2023, while Enea Bastianini rounded off the top ten as he made his debut for the factory Ducati outfit.
The four-time 2022 race winner was also the only rider to suffer a crash all day after dropping his Desmosedici at Turn 6 during the afternoon, though luckily he walked away unhurt.
Freshly-crowned world champion Francesco Bagnaia ended the day 12th overall just ahead of Marc Marquez.
Alex Marquez was 15th as he made his Ducati debut for the Gresini team, the Spaniard recording the same number of laps as his race number – 73 – with a best effort a few tenths adrift of his Valencia qualifying effort.
Pol Espargaro and Jack Miller managed to post 86 and 70 tours of the Ricardo Tormo venue respectively as they got up to speed on their KTM’s, while Joan Mir was the highest-placed of the Honda debutants in 17th, with Alex Rins ending the test 20th overall on the LCR-run RC213-V.
Raul Fernandez was 21st on his RNF Aprilia bow, the ex Tech 3 racer posting a 1:31.340s – a gambit that impressively was over three-tenths quicker than his Saturday qualifying effort for KTM – while Augusto Fernandez – the only rookie set to take to the 2023 grid – ended the day 22nd overall on his GasGas Tech 3-prepared RC16 with a total of 83 circulations completed.
