MotoGP had already unofficially kicked off its 2025 season with a day of testing late last year at Barcelona - but it's the three days at Sepang, comprising 24 hours of track running, that offered a first glimpse at the competitive picture that awaits us in the 2025 season.
But this isn't an attempt to estimate that - which would be quite flawed anyway given the various manufacturers seemed to put different levels of emphasis on true performance running, and that two of them had major injury absentees.
Instead, it is a ranking of the five manufacturers by quality of test relative to expectation - and in that sense there is a clear winner, even if it didn't quite top the times in the end.
1 Yamaha
It's difficult to remember a better MotoGP test for any manufacturer in recent years.
Fabio Quartararo's place towards the top of the timesheets could be explained away by him getting to do two days of the shakedown in the lead-up, but as the test progressed he steadfastly refused to drop down the order, getting faster and faster.
Most MotoGP factories finished the test with a best laptime more or less in range of their previous best. But Yamaha, which never even sniffed a 1m56s at Sepang before, was suddenly comfortably in that range in Quartararo's hands.
It's not all 100% rosy - Quartararo's pace progression wasn't one any of his Yamaha peers could emulate in the test, which is probably more a worry for Alex Rins than the two Pramac Yamaha newcomers - and there's an expectation that the second test at Buriram will expose the M1 more. The traction is "still very low", according to Quartararo.
"Our engine is a bit faster than last year, so I think this will be a help. But especially from low corners we are struggling a lot with rear grip. When it's fast corners, the grip is not that bad. But starting from really slow corners is where we really struggle."
There'll be plenty of time to fix that - and it's a complaint that can hardly overshadow the fact the M1 has flashed an actual bit of decent single-lap pace effectively for the first time in two seasons.
So good was its test that when you hear Miguel Oliveira say he's been able to "forget" about that in-development V4 engine being worked on in the background as the alternative to its current inline-four, it makes total sense.
"This whole 'V4/no V4' - I think it's a fad, I don't believe it's set in stone that you need a V4," reiterated Oliveira's Pramac team-mate Jack Miller.
"I think the inline-four we've got at the moment is pretty strong."
Best Sepang lap before test: 1m57.525s - Quartararo, 2024 test
Best lap of this test: 1m56.724s (-0.801s) - Quartararo
2 Ducati
Ducati is in an enviable position in MotoGP this year: it just needs to hold serve, and it's already started the game 30-0 up.
The stellar performance by the Ducati GP24s all test is prime evidence of that (as if evidence was needed). Whereas last year the newer Ducatis went 1-2-3 in the Sepang test, here Sepang specialist Alex Marquez put the older version on top - and both Franco Morbidelli and rookie Fermin Aldeguer were reliably in the first few positions, too, although Aldeguer's push for a final-day fast lap didn't quite come together.
"My feeling was better than the time, but we changed [the plan] a little bit, I didn't use all my tyres for a time attack," he explained.
Clearly there is robust evidence that this is a package that can still win a championship, which is why Ducati has found a real dilemma on its hands in whether to proceed with the GP25 engine or just homologate the 2024 one again even for its works riders.
"Still we need to analyse well and retry a bit in Thailand, because the most important decision you need to try in a different kind of circuit," Marc Marquez - who had a 'hybrid' package during his eye-catching sprint simulation on Friday - told MotoGP.com.
"And now the engineers will have time at home to analyse all the small details - because it's not only the engine, it's a few different parts that we need to be very, very sure about. Because the '24 package is super good and performs in a very good way. And looks like all the Ducatis are [up] there.
"With the previous package they won already 19 races of 20. If it's not completely sure, it's better to step back. But some positives on '25.
"Conservative is the word. Sometimes you need to be conservative, when you have already the best bike."
Best Sepang lap before test: 1m56.337s - Bagnaia, 2024 GP qualifying
Best lap of this test: 1m56.493s (+0.156s) - A Marquez
3 KTM
Amid all the off-track consternation surrounding KTM's insolvency and self-administration, its MotoGP team has moved to restore some normality by having a very KTM test.
New factory team boss Aki Ajo described it as "really productive" in "testing many different items" - but as a result of that it sounds like KTM didn't ever really put its best package together to see how it really stacks up.
Pedro Acosta told MotoGP.com that his best lap, even though it's KTM's best-ever at Sepang, wasn't a particularly complete one and "was not really fine at the end".
"It was missing a bit - but it's true that I think we have a little bit more in the pocket. Just wait to put everything together in Buriram."
His sprint race simulation was quite a way adrift of what the Ducatis were doing, but he felt it was unrepresentative because the tyre had "zero grip" relative to other tyres available to him.
"We are quite happy about the sprint race also," he insisted.
Asked whether KTM had showed its true level he said: "Not at the moment, I think. We have space to improve. Still many things to try and recheck. We are quite happy about our performance."
And that's easy enough to believe. KTM has often kept its powder dry in testing, for one reason or another, and then shot out of the blocks come the season opener, and it will presumably look to do so again this year.
Best Sepang lap before test: 1m57.307s - Brad Binder, 2024 test
Best lap of this test: 1m57.175s (-0.132s) - Acosta
4 Honda
Hindsight will be required on this one - that's true for every manufacturer, but particularly true for Honda, which had a reasonably promising Sepang test last year and then parlayed it into a wholly unimpressive campaign.
The laptime progression this week was eerily similar to that corresponding test from 2024, but it is worth taking note of rider Joan Mir's uplifted spirits after two brutal years.
Mir really wasn't impressed by what Honda had brought to the post-season running at Barcelona, but here he was consistently happy. He felt what Honda's brought is finally allowing him to ride how he wants and to mitigate the rear vibration issues that were so ruinous for him last year.
There were positive reviews for a new aero configuration - Luca Marini said it improved turning without sacrificing other areas; a new engine - Mir said it "has more potential" and Johann Zarco found it helped him with the rear of the bike; and a new chassis - Zarco said it opened up the mechanical set-up range in important ways.
The current evidence is it's still pretty far off. For the 1km/h of top speed provided by the new engine, Mir remarked that 4-5km/h more are still needed, with 'free' laptime being shipped on the straights. And while Marini reckoned the bike has improved, he said it is still "super far" from the rest and isn't convinced the gap to the front is meaningfully different to 2024.
Still, positions 3-4-5 in this ranking were pretty interchangeable, and considering that flashy new tech hire Romano Albesiano won't have really had the time to make his mark yet, a good-enough start to the season is worth more than it would've been in other circumstances.
Best Sepang lap before test: 1m57.374s - Mir, 2024 test
Best lap of this test: 1m57.204s (-0.170s) - Zarco
5 Aprilia
Talking about Aprilia's test performance and new bike feels a bit like that famous joke: 'Other than that, Mrs Lincoln, how was the play?'
A bad immediate injury to Jorge Martin meant this was always going to be a net negative few days, and Raul Fernandez's injury compounded the direness of the situation.
Amid all that, though, it looks like the new bike might be pretty good!
Martin's fellow new signing Marco Bezzecchi grew in confidence throughout the three days of testing, immediately preferring the newest RS-GP prototype over the version he tried in Barcelona testing last year and ultimately ending the test with his best Sepang lap by a healthy margin.
The final day of a test is exactly the time to set that kind of benchmark, yes, but it feels genuinely notable that it came from a rider on machinery new to him - just check where the Tech3 KTMs ended up, for instance.
"I didn't put the bike at the limit - but not because of the bike, more because of myself," Bezzecchi said.
He is loving the stability in the front - though badly wants more on the rear - and says there's enough power in the engine, but that it just needs to be put down on track more effectively.
"This bike is a step forward compared to the old one, also in braking performance," said tester Lorenzo Savadori of Aprilia's long-term weakness. "Of course it's not enough - it's never enough, we need to improve every time - but a little step in the correct way.
"In the RS[-GP] '25, we don't put very different changes, just changed little details, because in general the behaviour of the bike and the balance was good."
Another silver lining was that rookie Ai Ogura seemed to have a very solid run out there.
Best Sepang lap before test: 1m57.091s - Aleix Espargaro, 2024 test
Best lap of this test: 1m57.328s (+0.237s) - Bezzecchi
