While Honda made some strides forward at Sepang this week, Yamaha appears to have taken significant strides toward reclaiming a competitive position in the MotoGP field. While it’s still too early to draw definitive conclusions, further assessments in Thailand next week will provide more clarity. That said, the early signs are highly encouraging for Yamaha, particularly for Fabio Quartararo. The Frenchman expressed plenty of optimism after completing over 150 laps during the three-day test at Sepang.
Fabio Quartararo
“I am really happy! This is the first time that I reached a 1’56s here, so I am happy, and I think that today was a good day for us. The conditions were really good, so in general it was a positive day. Hopefully, during the Buriram Test we will have the same feeling. I’ve been working during the winter break, and not just on a road bike. In general, I was trying to be faster on one lap. I think this was a good point of improvement, but I also think the bike improved in some areas, which helps me to be fast on one lap. I think the goals I set for this test were neither too positive nor too negative. But it’s just one test. I think the real situation won’t show until we’re in Buriram on the Friday afternoon of the GP weekend and during qualifying.”
Quartararo also managed to string three consecutive 57s in succession twice on Friday. The rider with the most impressive long-run pace was Alex Marquez on the Gresini Ducati GP24.
Alex Rins used the final day of riding in Sepang to fully form his verdict on the various testing items and also tried several setting options. As usual, his main aim was getting the bike MotoGP-season ready and gathering as much data as possible. However, having a good feeling on the bike, he too did put in a time attack. It resulted in his fastest lap at the Sepang International Circuit. He clocked a 1’57.351s on lap 25/53. It had him place 10th in the Day 3 rankings and in the combined results, 0.858s from the top.
Alex Rins
“My feelings are really quite okay here. Including the Shakedown, all five days of riding at Sepang were quite positive for us. We tried many items and many things. In the last few days, between 10am and 11am, everyone was putting in a time attack on the soft tyre. We had this included in the plan for me too, but we delayed it a little bit. I preferred to focus on trying new things with the set-up, and that was quite good. From 10am to 11am, I was riding with used tyres and trying different things. Once I had a good feeling, we put in new tyres, and I improved my best lap time here from a 1’57.7s, set in last year’s Malaysia GP qualifying, to a 1’57.3s. I set this time while the track was not in the perfect condition, so I’m quite happy. I’m also quite satisfied with what we tested here. Let’s bring this package to Thailand so we can make a comparison.”
The new recruits to Yamaha’s cause for season 2025 after their switches from Ducati, KTM and Aprilia respectively, Pramac Racing, Jack Miller and Miguel Olveira, marked a significant milestone in their new partnership with Yamaha. Over the course of five days, including both the shakedown and the three-day official test sessions, the team focused on familiarising themselves with the 2025 YZR-M1 bike and integrating with Yamaha’s Japanese engineers and technicians, as riders Jack Miller and Miguel Oliveira showed a rapid adaptation to their new machinery.
Jack Miller concluded the final day with the 12th fastest time, with an innocuous slide at turn four, while Oliveira secured the 17th position. Jack’s best of 1m57.452 was fractionally better than his time recorded on the KTM (1m57.558) during qualifying at Sepang in November.
Jack Miller
“Testing on the same track for a few days allowed us to improve the feeling with the bike- which was good from the beginning, but this allowed us to play around a little bit with different settings, trying to understand the reaction of the bike, how is going to change and so on. Having the shakedown was really handy for us, we have been able to get through that test and try a lot of material. So it‘s been good. I ran out a little bit of time this morning, when the track conditions were cooler, as we had a couple of little things to test and by the time we got that done it was quite late. And then in my second time attack I managed to dump the front, it‘s one of those things of finding the limit at turn 4. I knew I was coming in pretty hot, I tried anyway and had a slide. But in general, I am happy with the performance of the bike, we have a lot of room for improvment and have a clear view of where we want to go. But to be already in the low 1‘57” can make us happy. It will be interesting to see how the bike reacts in Buriram, which is quite a different track.”
Miguel Oliveira
“This first test of the season has been great. We leave Sepang with a lot of information, more experience, and good feelings. I am a bit disappointed because today I missed the lap time I was hoping to achieve by the end of the test. However, it’s good to know that in a few days we will be heading to Thailand, so the work we’ve done can be consolidated on another track, and we hope this base setup can be productive at another circuit as well. Having the opportunity to fully share data between the four of us is great. Fabio is making the difference, and that helps everyone understand what we need as we prepare to face the season.”
These days were instrumental in evaluating new materials introduced by Yamaha and in determining the future direction for bike development and setup.
Gino Borsoi – Prima Pramac Yamaha MotoGP Team Director
“My approach to these days of testing was very simple: we started from a blank sheet of paper, I did not want to have any expectations. But after 5 days of hard work here in Sepang, I can say that I am not only very happy with the way things have gone, but I am also positively impressed: by the huge effort that Yamaha has shown during these days, by how well the people of Prima Pramac Racing and those of Yamaha have merged, by the great feedback from our riders in discovering the YZR-M1. There is still a lot of work ahead of us, but to start like this will give us all much more enthusiasm to try to get back to the top. Yamaha has a great desire to win again and so do we. It will certainly take time, but the direction is clear. These days have been crucial in understanding the direction we need to go from a technical point of view, and I think we have a much clearer idea of what we need. The exchange between our team and the Monster Energy Yamaha team is constant, we are two teams but we work and feel like one. And now a few well-deserved days off for the guys in our team before we head to Buriram for the last official test. I am very excited to see how we perform there.”
Massimo Meregalli – Monster Yamaha MotoGP Team Director
“Overall, these two tests, the Shakedown and the Official Test, have been positive for our team. We were able to compare the data from last year’s winter test and GP to this year’s test, and it shows in the lap times that we have improved. It’s been a while since we last had a chance to compare six riders’ data, and I believe this is already positively affecting the general performance. As per our company’s philosophy, we didn’t drastically make changes, but we did continue making progress and introducing updates in a natural way as a continuation of our 2024 testing. The combined effort of the two Yamaha Factory MotoGP teams started well in my opinion. It is too early to give a verdict already about our overall level. To have a better understanding of our real potential, the Buriram test will be more telling as all teams start their testing there at the same time.”
At the Sepang Test last year Pecco Bagnaia topped a Ducati 1-2-3-4 with a 1m56.682, in qualifying last year he lowered the all-time Sepang lap record to 1m56.337. The fastest time achieved during the three-day test this year was a 1m56.493 by Alex Marquez on the GP24 Ducati, seven-thousandths of a second ahead of Bagnaia, and just over two-tenths quicker than Quartararo.
Most of the MotoGP paddock now packs up and heads to Thailand for a two-day test next week, ahead of the season opener at Chang International Circuit on the weekend of March 2. It will be the final official MotoGP test before kicking off the 2025 MotoGP season at the same track with the Grand Prix of Thailand, held from 28 Feb-2 March. Moto2 and Moto3 riders will test at Jerez later this month.
