How Alex Marquez’s ‘super impressive’ Sepang Test time compares to Francesco Bagnaia’s 2024 pole lap

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Ducati are the manufacturer to beat in MotoGP in 2025. They won all but one race in a dominant season.

Francesco Bagnaia won 11 of those races as he searched for his third consecutive title. But the Italian missed out to Jorge Martin by 10 points, who became the first independent team rider to win the championship with Pramac.

Ducati will be looking to continue their dominance in 2025 with Bagnaia and Marc Marquez on board their factory team. The Spaniard was impressive on the GP23 as he finished third in the standings with three wins and 10 podiums.

But the GP24 was the machine to be on last year after winning 19 races. That remains the case after pre-season testing in Malaysia, but it was not a factory rider who topped the timesheets.

Marquez’s brother and 2024 Gresini teammate Alex Marquez was the man to beat after day three in Sepang. The Spaniard will race with the GP24 this year as he remains on year-old machinery in 2025.

Alex Marquez was ‘super close’ to Francesco Bagnaia’s pole lap in Malaysia in 2024

Marquez was just seven thousandths of a second ahead of Bagnaia on day three. The Gresini rider set a time of 1:56:493 – a ‘super impressive’ lap as Elliott York explained on After The Flag.

The lap was just a tenth off of Bagnaia’s pole lap in Sepang last year (1:56:337). Marquez’s ideal lap time was even closer at 1:56:383 – proving the GP24 is still the ‘perfect bike’.

“That’s what we expected coming into pre-season. It’s a proven package, won 19 of the 20 races last year”, said York.

“We expected Alex Marquez, especially after the Barcelona test as well where he tops that by over three tenths of a second, super impressive stuff. Admittedly he said it suits his riding style better, you can clearly see that.

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“This was a big one for me; his ideal lap time was just over a tenth faster than his actual lap time. 1:56:383, not very far off the all-time lap record set by Pecco Bagnaia at all.

“And with an extra bit of adrenaline thrown in, he knows he likes Sepang, we get that. But this is really impressive from Alex Marquez to be super close to Pecco Bagnaia who at that time was really, really used to the GP24 at that point.

“Alex still getting used to it, I mean it’s pretty much the perfect bike. So, super impressive stuff from Alex Marquez to be so close to Pecco’s pole time from last year”.

Which Ducati rider will come out on top in 2025?

Bagnaia will come into 2025 as the favourite for the title after Martin’s move to Aprilia. His title chances will be boosted further after Martin’s violent crash on day one of testing in Malaysia.

However, the Italian is still haunted by his mistakes that cost him the 2024 title. Bagnaia even thought about his errors on his honeymoon – something he will need to block out when battling Marc Marquez this season.

Many people in the paddock think Marquez will take Bagnaia apart in 2025 but do not want to ‘go public’ with that opinion. After his impressive performances on year-old machinery last year, the six-time MotoGP champion will surely be a contender on equal machinery to Bagnaia.

However, as Marquez proved last year, the year-old Ducati can still produce results. With the GP24 still looking strong in testing, his brother Alex, Fermin Aldeguer and Franco Morbidelli could cause a headache for the factory team.