It’s a little after 11am on Tuesday morning of 28 November at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo. The media mass is assembled outside of the Gresini Racing garage, and has been for well over an hour – hands frozen, faces beaten by a biting wind underneath a cold and overcast sky.
Technically, this is the beginning of the 2024 season. And thus, the beginning of Marc Marquez’s time as a Ducati rider. To say this is one of the biggest and most important test days in the last 10 years would be something of an understatement. Hence the swell of bodies surrounding the satellite Gresini team’s garage.
At 11:14am, Marquez throws his leg over the GP23 he will race next year – the bike having been wheeled out of Johann Zarco’s Pramac box on Sunday evening and into Gresini’s – and was on his way for his first MotoGP laps in 11 years on something that wasn’t a Honda.
He completes eight laps on his first run on the Ducati, the best of which a 1m30.683s. At the time, it put him third in the standings. The position was immaterial. The time, however, was telling. It was just over two tenths shy of the 1m30.414s he posted as his fastest lap of an albeit short Valencia Grand Prix on the Honda last Sunday.
What mattered more, though, was his reaction when he returned to his seat in his new garage alongside crew chief Frankie Carchedi: a flash of a smile, internally a greater sense of relief? The latter we won’t know until 1 January 2024, when his contract with Honda restricting him and the team from saying much expires.
“The day was amazing,” Gresini sporting director Michele Masini told the media on Tuesday after the test. “The important thing is the feeling. The feeling was there, the atmosphere was there. We are a bit tired from this long season, but after today we cannot wait to start 2024.
“You know about [the] contract, I cannot say more, but I think today the timesheet can speak.”
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Underlining the significance of the test, there was no shortage of interested observers in the pitlane for Marquez’s first time on the Ducati
Indeed, it did. Marquez completed 49 laps in total on the GP23. In run three he improved to a 1m30.222s. On run seven, he posted a 1m29.460s. At 3:21pm, the media centre overlooking the start/finish straight erupted when the eight-time world champion tripped the timing beam and shot to the top of the timesheet.
Arguably, there was more emotion and…
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