Marc Marquez is already starting to scare the competition: the Spaniard finished fourth in the Valencia-MotoGP tests

Maverick Vinales was fastest, but the highlight of the day was the former Honda driver

“Marquis is Marquis again”. This is how the Spanish daily AS highlights the results of the MotoGP test day held on Tuesday in Valencia. Not surprising. Upon his first contact with Gresini’s Ducati, after riding a Honda all his life, the Spaniard was able to show an impressive level of competitiveness, with the fourth fastest time of the day, just 171 thousandths behind Maverick Vinales’ mark. Yes, they were tests, but the unanimous opinion of analysts is that Marc Marquez is truly terrifying!

The Spaniard’s smile all day said it all. Marc Marquez is finally back to normal, after a very turbulent few months at Honda, where the battle with the machine was a constant. Just like falling.

This Tuesday, in 49 laps on the Ricardo Tormo track, Marquez recorded his best lap at the 46th attempt, behind the aforementioned Maverick Viñales (1:29.253), who took pole on Saturday, from Brad Bender and Marco Pizzici. In this first contact with the Desmosedici GP, the Spaniard was actually second best to the Ducati, trailing, for example, world champion Francesco Bagnaia by more than half a second.

Also noteworthy was Pedro Acosta, who on his first outing with the Tech3 GASGAS RC16 recorded the 18th best lap of the day, 1.223 seconds off Viñales’ time. The Moto2 champion completed 70 laps of the Valencia circuit and achieved his best lap precisely on his final attempt.

Without Miguel Oliveira, absent through injury, the work of the Aprilia Aerospace Team (still nameless for 2024) was left to Raul Fernandez, who again performed well for the fifth time, 263 thousandths behind Viñales. Aleix Espargaro completed just 17 laps and finished 22nd, while Lorenzo Savadori finished the timesheet completing just 27 laps.

The MotoGP World Championship is now entering a hiatus until next year, with the return of activity scheduled for the Sepang tests in Malaysia between February 6 and 8.

Written by Fabio Lima