Red Bull Content Pool // Gold & Goose

Yesterday afternoon, exactly a month before the first round of the MotoGP World Championship kicks off under the floodlights of Qatar (6th March), the official MotoGP test at Sepang drew to a conclusion. In actual fact, it kind of unofficially ended at lunchtime when the Malaysian heavens opened and Sepang?s legendary afternoon rain showers drenched the entire circuit. Nevertheless, the boys still managed to get plenty of laps in. And some of them weren?t hanging about, either; Enea Bastianini only went and beat the circuit lap record by almost two tenths of a second (0.172). It won?t count as a record, as official lap records have to be done during a race, but who cares, it?s more proof (as if we need it) that Bastianini could do something special this year.
But it?s not wise to invest too much expectation in anyone off the back of these testing results. The fact is that not all of the players will have been going out there chasing times. Most (if not all) of the teams will have had a strict testing schedule to follow, trying out new parts, analysing data and working on making the bike better, faster, and/or easier to ride. Sure, you?ve got to ride at a decent pace to test the bike and it?s components, but you don?t necessarily have to be pushing as hard as you would in a qualifying session. When the flag drops, the bullshit stops.

But if you?re anything like me, you?ll want to know exactly how fast all the riders went...