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Reigning MotoGP world champion Fabio Quartararo demonstrated the likely potential of the 2023 Yamaha M1 by ending two days of testing at Misano fastest overall.
Quartararo went over a second faster than he managed during the San Marino Grand Prix weekend to end up 0.3 seconds faster than second-fastest runner (and weekend podium finisher) Maverick Vinales.
Quartararo spent the morning working on the new 2023-spec engine he first tried out on day one of testing on Tuesday, and deemed it more than satisfactory afterwards. Using the second day to refine some minor electronics issues with it and fine-tuning weak areas on corner exit in particular, Quartararo was content that the upgrades he’s been chasing Yamaha for have now arrived.
Ducati rider Pecco Bagnaia, the weekend’s race winner, was second in the two-day combined standings with his lap from day one, beating Vinales by a mere 0.01s and ending up 0.118s from Quartararo. He concentrated not on engine development but on new frames in an attempt to close down Yamaha’s corner-speed advantage in particular.
Enea Bastianini, who only tested on Wednesday morning before joining Bagnaia and most of the grid in calling it quits early, was fourth, while a crash just before the lunch break meant that Aleix Espargaro, who finished fifth, was forced to abandon his own testing programme.
Breaking the little finger of his left hand in the fall, he was adamant that the injury won’t affect his chances to race at home at Aragon in 10 days’ time, but nonetheless called a precautionary early finish to the day due to pain from the fracture.
Bagnaia’s team-mate Jack Miller was another who fell, describing his off as a repeat performance of his crash from the lead at Turn 4 in Sunday’s race. He finished 18th on combined times.
Jorge Martin was sixth, describing the test afterwards as useful in getting back to his confidence after a bruising weekend in which confirmation he will not have a factory Ducati seat next year was followed by a lacklustre race weekend. Martin finished ahead of Luca Marini, who like VR46 Ducati team-mate Marco Bezzecchi (ninth overall) didn’t take to the track at all on the second day in an attempt to preserve engine life.
Here are your combined times at the end of two days of testing! 👇@FabioQ20 fastest from @PeccoBagnaia and Maverick! 👏#MisanoTest pic.twitter.com/x3hiXLQzDI
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) September 7, 2022
Miguel Oliveira split the yellow and black Ducatis in eighth, spending the majority of the two days not testing anything new thanks to his departure from KTM at the end of the season, while rookie Fabio Di Giannantonio rounded out the top 10.
The two-day event was the penultimate test of 2022, with only two days at Valencia following the final round of the season in November still to come before MotoGP goes into an enforced shutdown until the traditional season-opening Sepang test in February.
