Recapping the opening day of MotoGP Testing in Thailand – Quotes/Notes/Insights/Images

MotoGP 2025

Thailand Test – Day One

Cool morning conditions quickly gave way to the intense heat classically associated with Thailand on Wednesday afternoon, a preview of what is to come when MotoGP returns to the same circuit in just under two weeks for the first race of season 2025.

Marc Marquez topped an official MotoGP test day for the first time since the life-changing arm injuries he suffered at Jerez in 2020. The Spaniard spent part of the session focusing on ergonomic adjustments—experimenting with different handlebar positions—to get more comfortable on the bike. Later in the day, he switched to a time attack configuration, ultimately surpassing his brother on the time-sheets as they both continue adapting to the GP24 Ducati.

Franco Morbidelli rounded out a Ducati 1-2-3, benefiting from his prior experience on the GP24 with Pramac last season. In 2025, he will ride a GP24 for the Pertamina VR46 squad.

Franco Morbidelli

“We started the day very well and I immediately felt at ease with the setting I already had in Sepang. We could understand even better some things that will be useful. I am very happy with the Day 1. I have a great feeling on the bike, this is very important, and it reflects on the speed we have on track. Today my team did a great job at the end of the day, because in the last minutes we had some problems with both bikes and they could fix one in record time. This allowed me to make my fastest lap. Tomorrow we will work more on used tyres to understand how they react after many laps. It’s important because this is the last test before the start of the season, that will be on this track”.

Pecco Bagnaia had a few gremlins interrupt his progress today as he concentrated on the final analysis of the GP25 engine. Ducati is expected to analyse the data overnight before deciding whether to continue developing the GP25 engine or stick with the proven GP24 powerplant. That decision is incredibly critical as once they nominate their engine specification for this season they will be required to use it not only for this season but also throughout 2026, due to an engine freeze ahead of the transition to 850 cc engines in 2027.

Pecco Bagnaia

“Today was a difficult day. We had to do a lot of work to solve some problems we had in several areas. Fortunately on the other side of the garage they made some progress so we will analyse their data and that makes me confident. My team did a great job as usual and now we draw a line and tomorrow we pick up where we left off.”

Rookie Fermin Aldeguer continued his learning process with Gresini Ducati and was the sole rider on track for the team as Fabio Di Giannantonio recovers from shoulder surgery. With starting now so critical in MotoGP, considering front tyre heat issues and the new shorter Sprint Races, many riders spent some time practicing their getaways. One of which went quite spectacularly wrong for Aldeguer…

It was an encouraging day for Aprilia as Marco Bezzecchi showed signs of progress with the RS-GP machine, finishing Wednesday fourth on the time-sheets ahead of KTM’s Pedro Acosta and Honda’s Luca Marini and Johann Zarco. This circuit one that Bezzecchi likes as he is the current lap record holder at the Thai venue.

The Honda riders evaluating more developments on the RC213-V and benefitting from an earlier hit-out at the circuit by test rider Aleix Espargaro in January.

Johann Zarco

“I’m satisfied. When we put the new tyre, we managed to do a good job, and I’m happy with how everything is working. I knew I could be fast. Throughout the day, we tested many things that have been useful. Tomorrow afternoon, we’ll do a long run to get the feeling and prepare for the race weekend.”

Luca Marini

“I think one of my strengths is to find the speed quite quickly, so we started today well and then spent the rest of the day looking at the setting. We’ve been able to get through more or less all of the parts we had to assess in Sepang, so now we turn out attention to getting the maximum potential from the bike. Certainly, we have been able to improve our level since we were last here a few months ago and we need to continue in this way. Of course everything will change a little bit during a race weekend, but for now we still have one more day to try things tomorrow.”

Joan Mir

“I feel that we as Honda, not just myself, are in a better position than last year and are closer to the pace and the lap times we need to be at. This year we are more prepared than last year, but we still need to keep improving and preparing. We have been able to make a step in the overall rideability of the bike and have a few ideas for tomorrow as well. There is margin to take another step forward tomorrow and also in the future. We are making progress in almost all areas.”

Jack Miller rounded out the top ten on Wednesday and was also the fastest Yamaha.  While Sepang was a high-grip scenario, the Chang International Circuit is very much at the opposite end of the scale. Fabio Quartararo reporting a struggle with front end grip across both tyre options.

Jack Miller

“The track was a bit dirty in the morning, but with all the bikes it cleaned up pretty quickly. I feel good, the bike is working well, we made some steps during the day to improve some of the weak areas I found on the track. It was more of a set-up day rather than testing anything specific like we did in Sepang. I am now concentrating on setting up the bike for the race and I can say that I feel good on the M1. The rear grip isn’t as much of an issue here as we expected. In general the bike feels very good to ride, I am having fun.”

Alex Rins

“Today was very warm, but it was a good day. We compared the parts we tested in Sepang again and confirmed our findings here. This afternoon I tried the new front Michelin tyres, and I put in a new soft tyre as well just to see where we are. Let’s see how tomorrow goes, when the grip gets a bit better. I haven’t had a chance to check the pace yet. We will try to find a set-up improvement tomorrow and just get ready for the first GP.”

Fabio Quartararo

“I rode a lot today, trying to be fast. Let’s see if I can ride the way I want to if the track improves tomorrow. We tried a few things today that can be positive, but I wasn’t riding well, so hopefully we can find something tomorrow and make the tyres adapt to us. I do think that we have made some steps, but today we were just struggling with other things, like the grip. But we’re in quite a good position. The bike performance is quite good.”

Miguel Oliveira

“I had an eventful afternoon with some problems, not everything went smoothly with the runs, but in the end we were able to make up some time. I tried to be a little more in the right place for tomorrow’s start. As the track improved the conditions were better for our bike, but we still have a lot of work to do. Still, I think we are relatively competitive looking at the start of the race, while we have to work on finding a good rhythm with used tyres.”

Rookie Ai Ogura impressive once again, 15th quickest for the day on the Trackhouse Aprilia, just ahead of Enea Bastianini. The Italian not at all looking comfortable on the KTM but still finishing the opening day ahead of Tech3 team-mate Maverick Vinales.

Ai Oguira

“The grip level was much less here compared to Sepang but after two or three outings it was ok. I was struggling under braking just like in Sepang and I was focusing on the same as during the last test in Malaysia. In general, the day was good – we are making some steps, so we just want to keep working. Tomorrow is going to be a really important day for me. As always, I just want to give my maximum and we want to try many things on the last day and I’ll will try to improve myself as much as I can.”

Enea Bastianini

“At the start of the day, we weren’t going in the right direction so I was not feeling very well during the whole morning, but we did a complete reset to try, and rethink which directions to take to be more competitive, which we did. At the moment, I don’t feel very comfortable on the bike, I need to adapt my riding style to the machine, change a few things. I spent four years with the same brand, and I logically have habits. The reset is going to take a bit of time, but the KTM bike has good potential, and I want to give my 100% to reach the maximum we can.”

Maverick Viñales

“We continued to do many laps to keep learning the bike, it is never easy to adapt to a new bike, but we are working hard. The KTM is behaving very differently to what I was used to in the past, so the cure is laps and time. I think that we improved from Sepang, and I am sure that tomorrow will be better, we are progressing day after day. It might take us two or three races to be competitive, but I am confident that we will be there soon, as we continue working and learning.”

Raul Fernandez returned to action after the Spaniard suffered a broken bone in his hand that on the first day of the Sepang Test that required surgery late last week. The crash in Malaysia also left him with a fractured little toe on his left foot but the 24-year-old battled through the discomfort to put in plenty of laps.

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Raul Fernandez

“I feel lucky because I’m here. We did a lot of laps, collecting a lot of information, which is important. Coming directly to the first round without any information, we would need two rounds to get to the point that we can reach now so, for me it was the best choice to come here. Today was a positive day, especially as the left corners have been quite difficult for me – I can’t have my natural position on the bike because of my two broken toes. But I feel good though and I feel fit. I’m a bit tired this evening, but it was a first full day on the MotoGP bike for me this year.”

Davide Brivio – Trackhouse Aprilia Team Principal

“I think we had a positive day. Huge thanks to Raul for making the effort to come here and put together a few laps. It was a positive day because we could go through some tests, working on the electronics, on fine-tuning the 2025 bike to make it suitable for his riding style. It’s very important to get as much work done as possible before the first race weekend. Ai continued his progress from Sepang. He did another long run, which is very important to understand the bike behavior over the race distance. Every time, we take something more, so we are in a good position and going in a good direction, I think. We are doing what we planned to do and will use the last day tomorrow as a final preparation to be ready for Round 1.”

Riding a MotoGP bike on home soil for the first time, Somkiat Chantra put in an intense day of work and remains committed to improving the challenging areas where he struggles most to achieve the best possible feeling on the bike.

Somkiat Chantra

“Today was my first day riding a MotoGP bike in Buriram, and it was really nice. We worked on the braking point, which I need to improve, and we also tried to prepare the best setup for tomorrow, as we will be doing a long run. I want to keep learning and be ready for the first race here”.

Tomorrow, Thursday, most riders will undertake long runs to gather valuable data as they prepare for the first race here in Buriram (from 28th February to 2nd March).  There will also, no doubt, be some serious single-lap time attacks undertaken by some riders and they will benefit from more rubber being down on what today was still quite a dirty track.

For reference, the all-time lap record belongs to Pecco Bagnaia who set a 1m28.700 during qualifying last year while the race lap record belongs to Marco Bezzecchi, that time set in 2023 at 1m30.896.

2025 MotoGP Thailand Test Times
Day One