The “test before the test” is over at Sepang, and rookie Pedro Acosta (GASGAS) put down the quickest lap after three days at the circuit. The MotoGP season officially starts tomorrow at Sepang where all of the factory riders will participate in three days of testing.
Due to “concessions” granted to Yamaha and Honda, their factory riders participated in the shakedown test, but Acosta prevailed over the likes of Quartararo, Mir and Rins. Pretty impressive stuff from a rookie.
MD will report on the official test beginning tomorrow, but remember Acosta’s best time from the shakedown test … 1:58.189.
It might be of interest to note that Acosta is riding a KTM rather than a Red Bull GasGas.
My understanding is that it’s exactly the same bike, “Gas Gas” is purely a marketing exercise. The photos from the pre-test show the Gas Gas logo on the front fairing so they may be playing with body work configurations before finishing the Tech 3 bikes for the 1st round.
After day 1 of the “full test” Pedro is 2 behind Jorge Martin with Fabio Quartararo in 3rd. 1st through 18th are basically within 1 second of each other after day one which seems incredibly close to me.
On day two Bastianini edged out Martin in the last half hour.
Worshipers of Marc Marquez had a bad day as he finished 14 as the slowest Ducati behind Mir and Zarco on their Hondas and a couple of Yamaha riders. He did put in more laps than any other rider (72). So he is trying.
I wonder if his girlfriend left him. It happens.
Looking at Day 2 the results seemed more in line with expectations from last year. I take Marquez and some of the other curiously low performance times with a grain of salt. This is a testing event so we must assume that many teams aren’t there to throw down a flyer every day.
It was happened before to Vale and Jorge. Not a surprise.
After Day 3 things look a lot more like we’d expect. Ducati all over the top of the time sheets with Bagnaia, Martin, and Bastaini on top. Acosta has done very well to remain in the top-10. Marquez is about 0.5sec back.
The site I followed this on also has a table showing average lap time over longer runs (8+ laps) that is more indicative of actual race pace.
It will be an interesting three days. Dude has talent for sure, and I don’t think it’s wise to count him out, long-term. But testing is testing, and may/may not translate to specific results once the lights go out. We will all see, soon enough, and I’m glad the bikes are back on track after winter!
Look, not trying to be a smart ass, but it will probably be taken as such. I like this site and many of the comments are appropriate and sincere. But, also believe truth in advertising. This site should be renamed ‘Motorcycle Weekly’ or ‘Motorcycle Racing Weekly’. Going to any store magazine section is disheartening. Almost all the motorcycle periodicals are gone. We live in different times where our youth would rather spend their time using their fingers on video games than outside riding. Guess, I’m old fashioned, prefer being outside on two wheels.
Check out Apple News magazines — as part of that monthly subscription, I can get three UK magazines (one of which is weekly, MCN) and one Australian magazine all solely dedicated to motorcycles. It’s how I get most of my motorcycle news now. You are correct that the motorcycle content in this county is all but gone.
Re-lax, take a laxative
Back in the day, Dirck did post new content every day.
Lots of dirt bike tests as well as motocross and Supercross race coverage, too. too.
Those were the days. 🙂
In general the lack of quality writing in motorcycle journalism is abundant. Hard copy magazines of lore had much more information of both static and in motion testing. The magazines that did survive the format change to online are almost pathetic by lightly including data necessary to a interesting article. This opinion isn’t targeting MD as it is a decent source if somewhat spotty on continuity.
The larger picture the whole industry seems lackadaisical towards the study of the products they sell. Case in point; I asked several sales people if the new Moto Guzzi Stelvio was mono unit construction, nobody could answer this simple question. I noted that no online magazines even wandered down this road. Yet for Moto Guzzi this is a huge departure from their longitudinal v-twin history.
Back in the day ( early to mid 1980’s) I could rhyme off every Japanese motorcycle including bore/ stroke, horsepower, torque, valve configuration, intake systems, and price. Oddly I wasn’t even employed in the industry, but was a diehard fan. Only way I can understand the lack of quality , it must stem from the lack of caring about doing a good job. Journalists have become the fast food workers of the written word.
It isn’t a lack of quality or detail, things like “bore/ stroke, horsepower, torque, valve configuration, intake systems,…” are becoming less and less important to motorcycle buyers. Racing has dwindled in popularity in the US so even engine size has become a secondary concern. Most just want to know how powerful, how big/heavy, how expensive and what the meaningful features to the actual ride experience are.
Unless a piece of internal technology is truly new, innovative and meaningful to the actual riding experience, it just makes people’s eyes glaze over anymore.
Pedro is cool for now
It was very impressive by him to top the shakedown tests, but let’s see where he is when Aprilia, Ducati and factory KTM roll up next week. If he’s still among the top names at that point, then I’ll be seriously impressed.