Raul Fernandez leads Aprilia 1-2 as year ends

Raul Fernandez and Marco Bezzecchi made it a 1-2 for Aprilia in MotoGP’s post-season Valencia test, as the Noale-based marque carried on its form from Sunday’s final round.

After Aprilia dominated last weekend’s Valencia Grand Prix, with Bezzecchi winning from Fernandez, the Italian manufacturer was again out front in the official one-day test, only with the order reversed between its riders.

The day got off to an excruciatingly slow start after an overnight shower washed away all the grip from the track, leaving several damp patches on the surface.

While Jack Miller and Maverick Vinales braved the conditions to complete an installation lap each, no timed laps had been set by 12pm, forcing organisers to take remedial action.

Red flags were shown, with hordes of marshals bringing leaf blowers — and even trucks — to dry the remaining areas of the track.

The mid-day break was also cancelled, while the session itself was extended by 30 minutes until 5:30pm local time (4:30pm GMT) to maximise the time that teams and riders had.

The green flag was waved with around four hours left on the clock, with Valencia GP winner Bezzecchi the first to venture out on track on the factory Aprilia RS-GP, featuring a heavily revised aero package.

Several riders followed Bezzecchi, with Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo setting the early benchmark with a 1m30.020s — as he tested the new V4-powered M1.

Bezzecchi went one better than Quartararo next time out, becoming the first rider to dip under the 90-second mark with a 1m29.949s.

KTM star Pedro Acosta managed to go four tenths quicker soon after to take the top spot, before Trackhouse’s Fernandez put Aprilia back at the front with a 1m29.501s.

Fernandez and Bezzecchi continued to trade positions in the penultimate hour, but Fernandez’s effort of 1m29.397s ultimately stood firm as he ended the day on top by 0.027s.

The only rider to lap within a tenth of the Aprilia duo was Gresini’s Alex Marquez, who shot to third place on a 1m29.457s in the final hours as he completed his first laps on the factory-spec Ducati GP26.

Marquez’s team-mate Fermin Aldeguer also delivered a late improvement to leap to fourth place, surviving a big moment at Turn 14 as he got to grips with the GP25.

As the Gresini duo improved, Acosta was demoted to fifth in the final order, but he still ended up as the top KTM with a best time of 1m29.581s.

He was closely followed by KTM stablemate Vinales on the Tech3-run RC16, with Fabio di Giannantonio seventh for VR46 after briefly stopping at Turn 1 early on with a technical problem.

Nicolo Bulega, again standing in for the injured Marc Marquez, logged another 45 laps after racing at both Portimao and Valencia. Riding for the factory Ducati team, he finished the day in eighth, just ahead of KTM’s Brad Binder.

The top 10 was rounded out by two-time MotoGP champion Francesco Bagnaia, who recorded the only crash of the day as he went down at Turn 2 in the final hour on his GP26.

Both factory Ducati riders were running special retro liveries in Valencia, even as most teams opted to run unpainted bikes.

The fastest Honda in the session was factory rider Joan Mir, who finished 12th — behind Trackhouse’s Ai Ogura — with a time of 1m29.872s. LCR’s Johann Zarco and team-mate Luca Marini shadowed him in 13th and 14th respectively.

After leading the session early on, Quartararo was classified 15th on the best of the Yamaha, but just half a second adrift of pacesetter Fernandez.

MotoGP rookies Toprak Razgatlioglu and Diogo Moreira completed their first official sessions on MotoGP bikes, as they joined Pramac and LCR respectively for the Valencia test.

Three-time World Superbike champion Razgaltioglu finished the day in 18th with a best time of 1m30.667s, while newly-crowned Moto2 title winner Moreira ended up 21st on the timesheets.

Moreira was riding in the familiar corporate colours of HRC, with LCR’s partnership with Japanese oil giant Idemitsu — which dictated a red-and-white livery — ending following its split with Thai rider Somkiat Chantra.

Valentino Rossi’s protege Celestino Vietti made his MotoGP debut in the Valencia test after VR46 made a last-minute decision to draft him in place of Franco Morbidelli, who sustained a fracture on his left-hand in Sunday’s race.

Vietti was classified 21st and last, three seconds off the ultimate pace.

Test results:

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— The Motorsport.com Team