The opening practice sessions of the first Grand Prix of the year is generally considered one of the most important and most revealing days of the whole year.
Whilst most MotoGP fans spend the winter weekends trying to enjoy less exciting sports, whilst ticking off the days to the season opener, for a Grand Prix racing team, these months are all about hundreds of engineers, technicians, aerodynamicists and the like, across factories in Japan, Italy and Austria desperately searching for tiny fractions of a second in performance.
All of the manufacturers know that despite what all the computer generated analytics and data tells them, one of biggest tests of their efforts will be when their riders take their creations onto the track in pre-season testing. But they also know their competitors have not been sleeping throughout the winter and although testing will give early indications, only the first timed practice is the real gauge of who has achieved the most during the winter.
Unsurprisingly, early signs that the current domination of Ducati would continue into the 2026 season were confirmed in pre-season testing with their latest offering of almost a combination of the best of the 24 and 25 bikes. However, it would be the smaller of the two Italian manufacturers, Aprilia, who would take first blood.
Marco Bezzechi topped both Friday sessions on his factory Aprilia, including a new outright lap record, continuing his impressive form from last year. More good news for the team was the return of Jorge Martin, for the first time in 12 months, fit to compete on his new bike and posting an encouraging 5th place. Even the satellite Trackhouse bikes finished the day higher than their normal expectations.
The signs did not look good for Ducati as both factory riders, Marquez and Bagnaia finished the day in 2nd and 15th respectively with the world champions lap being more of a one off than a consistent time during the session. Their problems apparently caused by the special ‘heat treated’ Michelins used in extreme hot temperatures like the Thai event.
Although Fabio Di Giannantonio seemed to be unaffected with consistent good times leaving him in 3rd, Alex Marquez & Franco Morbidelli finished the unhappy with their 6th and 13th places respectively.
Whilst KTM appeared to have kept pace with the other manufacturers in their development the same could not be said for the Yamahas. With the exception of Ducati test rider Michele Pirro, wildcarding at this GP, the bottom 3 places were occupied by three Yamahas, Jack Miller, Alex Rins and rookie Toprak Razgatioglu and their top entrant Fabio Quartararo only 3 places higher. It looks like being a long painful season for the Japanese concern.
Even though this was the first GP of the season, ironically the most notable off track gossip centered around next year and who will be riding for who. Not confirmed but strong indications are that Jorge Martin will leave Aprilia and join Yamaha, although he may be rethinking that after these sessions. Yamaha’s woes are making Honda’s efforts to lure Quartararo away slightly easier and Pecco Bagnaia will replace Martin at Aprilia, leaving his Ducati seat vacant for Pedro Acosta.
Also off track there were two stories entered around the Tech3 KTM team with new team boss Gunther Steiner unsurprisingly getting lots of media attention and perhaps surprisingly, being able to conduct all of his interviews without swearing. Another new face in this garage was that of former multi world champion Jorge Lorenzo, now acting as rider coach for Maverick Vinales.
Best to not judge the winter toils of the technical staff just yet. Its still early, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see more changes at Yamaha before the season closes.
