until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
Pecco Bagnaia led a day of Ducati domination on the first of two test days at Misano, with Sunday’s San Marino Grand Prix race winner topping the time sheets by 0.181s from Luca Marin, Jorge Martin, Marco Bezzecchi and Johann Zarco.
However, with others working on different testing programs, it also marked a successful day for many of the Italian riders’ rivals as the first of MotoGP’s new 2023 bikes made its first appearances as well.
With fast lap times coming only late in the day (which was unusually split into two parts with a one-hour pause for lunch in between), many of Bagnaia’s rivals had already long called the day to a close by the time the chequered flag went out, with six-time world champion Marc Marquez and championship leader Fabio Quartararo among those heading for an early shower.
Quartararo, who was the first non-Ducati in sixth place just ahead of Sunday’s runner-up Enea Bastianini, was one of those to try out brand new machinery and was left delighted by the first steps on what seems to be a faster Yamaha M1 for next year.
Marquez eased himself back into MotoGP duties after a 100-day absence recovering from his latest injury, completing only 49 laps and finishing up at lunchtime with the goal of resting his still-recovering arm and shoulder ahead of a more intense effort on Wednesday. He ended the day in P17, 0.8s off Bagnaia’s time.
Maverick Vinales was the best Aprilia in eighth – but was slower only than team-mate Aleix Espargaro in the morning’s session, with Espargaro one of the day’s early fallers alongside Ducati rider Jack Miller. He ended 10th overall, just behind the first KTM of Brad Binder.
Swiss rider Dominique Aegerter, standing in for the injured Joan Mir at Suzuki, got to make his MotoGP debut in the morning with a brief 33 laps, ending up 2.3s from Espargaro – a notably impressive debut time that should see the newly-crowned MotoE champion selected to stand in for Mir at the next round if needed.
Some of the grid will return to action again on Wednesday for the second day of testing, but others (mainly Suzuki and the satellite teams) will instead pack up and head for the next round of the championship in Spain in 10 days’ time thanks to limited new components for them to try.
