The MotoGP pre-season test at Sepang allowed for 24 hours of running - and that's just for those who didn't do the shakedown - so it's no surprise that by the end of it a number of riders were attempting full-on race simulations instead of just trying parts and set-ups.
And just like over a single lap Ducati came out on top in these - but, just like over a single lap, it was the year-old Ducati of Alex Marquez getting one over the factory bikes, by tiny margins.
Here is the lowdown on every run that could be realistically termed a race run during the Sepang test, and what the riders in question revealed as detail.
First, let's take the riders who completed runs of exactly 10 laps to give us a mock sprint race classification.
Sepang test 'sprint race'
- Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati), 19m39.014s
- Marc Marquez (Ducati), +0.282s
- Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati), +3.412s
- Pedro Acosta (KTM), +6.950s
- Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia), +8.650s
- Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha), +16.783s
- Joan Mir (Honda), +18.016s
Now let's break them down one by one.
Alex Marquez
Day 3
Average laptime: 1m57.901s
Peak laptime: 1m57.368s
The younger Marquez greatly enjoyed the bragging rights of beating his brother narrowly over a 10-lap mock sprint run - but it was an outcome that reflected a great test overall, with a Ducati GP24 operating at the peak of its powers.
It also reflected his obvious affinity for Sepang.
"It's true that it's a track that we could make a world championship here - 22 races here, would be perfect for me!" he joked.
"The race simulation was super good. Because I was in the box, I saw the Pecco one, later on I saw the Marc one, I said 'he's pushing, he was super fast, I need to go for it'. I pushed hard, we were there really really close but I think in the end I was after 10 laps 0.2s faster than him."
Marc Marquez
Day 3
Average laptime: 1m57.930s
Peak laptime: 1m57.641s
The elder Marquez's race run didn't quite touch the heights of his brother's - note the nearly three-tenth discrepancy in the best laptime - but his pace did hold up marginally better in the final laps, albeit not enough to score the best 'race time'.
But it was also a sprint conditioned, like the rest of the factory Ducati team's test, by the need to check and double-check just how much of the new-for-'25 spec is actually an improvement over what's already there in the GP24.
Marquez described his bike spec for the sprint simulation as "a mix".
"It was with the 2024 aero, the rest... you cannot see, so for that reason I say only the aero! Sorry."
Pecco Bagnaia
Day 3
Average laptime: 1m58.243s
Peak laptime: 1m57.820s
Bagnaia's sprint simulation was lacking - relatively speaking, of course - but even after a season in which sprints mathematically cost him the title it's almost certainly not something to really read into.
"We decided to go with two different configurations of the bike for the simulation, to give as much data as possible to the engineers," he revealed of himself and Marquez.
"And it was super useful.
"For the mini-long run I needed to sacrifice a bit the performance to try something. And I wasn't that happy during it, I was having a bit of vibration - that wasn't the same as [in the early races] last year but lap by lap was worse and worse.
"But I know in that moment we're just engineers riding bikes. We need to test for them, and give our maximum performance for them."
Asked what spec he was running, he said: "Honestly I can't tell [you]. I just can tell you we were doing different jobs. We used two different ways during the day. And one thing that I tried more than Marc was the [new] frame. And I liked it. But like everything more or less has good and bad [sides]."
Pedro Acosta
Day 3
Average laptime: 1m58.596s
Peak laptime: 1m57.922s
On the surface, Acosta's sprint simulation - just like his single-lap push - are probably a bit further off the pace than his fans would like.
But there are two caveats. One is that his side of the KTM garage is, in his words, at "just 60% of a race bike" after all the development work - so wasn't really looking to have a true performance run at Sepang.
The other is that he reckoned the rear tyre wasn't quite right.
"Something wrong happened in my sprint simulation," he said. "Because that tyre had zero grip since I went out from the pitlane. It was quite strange for me. In lap three I was fighting to survive - then I put a tyre from this morning with 10 laps [on it] and was absolutely fine.
"Anyway, we are happy. We feel we are closer than last year."
Marco Bezzecchi
Day 3
Average laptime: 1m58.766s
Peak laptime: 1m58.366s
Bezzecchi spoke to the media midway through the final day so didn't get to debrief on his sprint simulation - which, in any case, was a solid one for a rider new to the Aprilia RS-GP.
It was considerably faster than his actual sprint race on the 2023-spec Ducati at Sepang last year, in which he never got into the 1m58s range. Mileage, track conditions and traffic all contribute to that, of course, but it is notable all the same given the switch to a new bike can offset those advantages.
"I'm still able to ride a bike, maybe!" he joked on Friday.
Jack Miller
Day 2
Average laptime: 1m59.580s
Peak laptime: 1m58.665s
Miller's sprint sim shouldn't be representative of his performance capacity even at this early stage with a Yamaha M1 - for two reasons.
Firstly, it took place on the second day rather than the final day, meaning the track will have been slightly less optimal - though still good.
Secondly, he didn't start on a fresh set of tyres.
"It was good. Started on used tyres, was in the 1m58s in the beginning, dropped to the 1m59s," Miller said.
"We were very conservative with the tyre pressure, so it was like 2.2[psi] in the front towards the end of it. Just one of those- even the rear went up quite a bit, I could feel it. Had to drop power pretty early on in the run, probably like lap four, just with the temperature rising - it just kept rising, basically. But that was good, to understand the fluctuations of the tyre temperature and what that does to the bike."
Joan Mir
Day 3
Average laptime: 1m59.703s
Peak laptime: 1m59.310s
Mir's 10-lap run never came up in his post-test media appearances, with the one-lap pace that sent him - and stablemate Johann Zarco - into the top 10 getting more of an emphasis instead.
Curiously none of the four Honda riders did a 1m58s lap at any point during their longer runs - but that kind of thing is of course always dependent on not just bike spec but tyres, tyre life at the start, fuel load and even something as simple as 'how hard they were trying'.
Mir reiterated through the test that he felt Honda had got closer to the front.
The full set of long runs
Several riders did runs that didn't quite rise to the 10-lap requirement of a full sprint sim, but were still clearly long runs of sorts - we used six representative laps as a cut-off point.
Several also ran for more than 10 laps, which automatically implies a race sim, often meaning a different tyre but also a different bike configuration.
And, again, there were some who didn't really bother at all, given performance running at Sepang right now is of limited value given the actual race itself is towards the end of the season.
Expect a fuller set of data in the second test at Buriram, as that will be followed up by the race at the same venue.
Long runs by average time
Alex Marquez, 1m57.901s (10 laps)
Marc Marquez, 1m57.930s (10 laps)
Fabio Quartararo, 1m58.032s (6 laps)
Pecco Bagnaia, 1m58.243s (10 laps)
Fermin Aldeguer, 1m58.580s (8 laps)
Pedro Acosta, 1m58.596s (10 laps)
Marco Bezzecchi, 1m58.766s (10 laps)
Franco Morbidelli, 1m58.800s (7 laps) Day 2
Alex Rins, 1m58.963s (7 laps)
Brad Binder, 1m59.133s (6 laps)*
Franco Morbidelli 1m59.426s (11 laps)*
Johann Zarco 1m59.485s (6 laps)
Jack Miller, 1m59.580s (10 laps) Day 2
Luca Marini, 1m59.651s (6 laps)*
Joan Mir, 1m59.703s (10 laps)
Johann Zarco, 1m59.799s (6 laps)
Ai Ogura, 1m59.960s (14 laps) Day 2
Miguel Oliveira, 2m00.025s (12 laps) Day 2
Ai Ogura, 2m00.365s (7 laps) Day 1
Somkiat Chantra, 2m00.407s (15 laps)
Michele Pirro, 2m00.465s (7 laps) Day 2
Michele Pirro, 2m00.501s (7 laps) Day 2
Runs are Day 3 unless otherwise mentioned, * symbol denotes runs where 'junk' laps were excluded, lap count is number of representative laps
Long runs by manufacturer
Ducati
Alex Marquez, 1m57.901s (10 laps)
Marc Marquez, 1m57.930s (10 laps)
Pecco Bagnaia, 1m58.243s (10 laps)
Fermin Aldeguer, 1m58.580s (8 laps)
Franco Morbidelli, 1m58.800s (7 laps) Day 2
Franco Morbidelli 1m59.426s (11 laps)*
Michele Pirro, 2m00.465s (7 laps) Day 2
Michele Pirro, 2m00.501s (7 laps) Day 2
Yamaha
Fabio Quartararo, 1m58.032s (6 laps)
Alex Rins, 1m58.963s (7 laps)
Jack Miller, 1m59.580s (10 laps) Day 2
Miguel Oliveira, 2m00.025s (12 laps) Day 2
KTM
Pedro Acosta, 1m58.596s (10 laps)
Brad Binder, 1m59.133s (6 laps)*
Aprilia
Marco Bezzecchi, 1m58.766s (10 laps)
Ai Ogura, 1m59.960s (14 laps) Day 2
Ai Ogura, 2m00.365s (7 laps) Day 1
Honda
Johann Zarco 1m59.485s (6 laps)
Luca Marini, 1m59.651s (6 laps)*
Joan Mir, 1m59.703s (10 laps)
Johann Zarco, 1m59.799s (6 laps)
Somkiat Chantra, 2m00.407s (15 laps)
