MotoGP Sepang Shakedown 2025: what to remember...

fabio quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) finishes a MotoGP Shakedown Test 2025 very active, in Sepang in Malaysia, being the fastest and the only driver to go under the 1'58 mark, with a time of 1'57.794.

At the last Grand Prix, he had set a 1'57.592 in Q2, but his time on Sunday nevertheless allowed him to take a three-tenths lead over his new factory teammate, Jack Miller (Prima Pramac Yamaha MotoGP), which occupies second place, whileAlex Espargaro, the Honda HRC test rider, managed to grab third place on his final lap of the third day. For comparison, the circuit record belongs to Francis Bagnaia since his fantastic 2024 pole position in 1'56.337.

But the highlights aren't limited to timesheets!

THE ROOKIES

Ai Ogura (Trackhouse MotoGP Team) continued to impress, finishing fourth overall, 0.414s behind Fabio Quartararo on day three. He was the fastest rookie, and second overall, on day one before the factory Yamaha riders joined the test, and he remained ahead Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Racing MotoGP) on the second day as well, by a few thousandths.

Ai Ogura, the reigning Moto2™ champion, also completed the most laps in a race simulation. Surprisingly, he was a few tenths quicker over the 17 laps than the best Aprilia here last year. There’s no doubt that the Japanese rider is acclimatising quickly… and the 2025 RS-GP looks really well-born!

Fermin Aldeguer is two tenths behind Ogura and 0,627 off the lead. He was the only rider to crash during the entire race, but there was no damage after losing control on Sunday at Turn 9, which he immediately rejoined. Had Ogura not been on track, his performance would have been that of the best rookie.

The Thai pilot Somkiat Chantra (IDEMITSU Honda LCR) was a little out of the running on his second day of the Shakedown, having sat out the first day. He said he was starting to get back into the swing of things, and gave an update on his first MotoGP test.

A LOOK AT THE FACTORIES

Yamaha has reportedly developed a new chassis and swingarm for the fabio quartararo and his teammate alex rins, as well as new aerodynamics for the 3rd day. fabio quartararo ranked first and alex rins seventh. We also saw Augusto Fernandez on a prototype with a pitot tube and optical sensors on the swing arm. Contrary to what we had hoped, the V4-engined prototype did not appear in Malaysia…

The adaptation of Jack Miller has been remarkable. His final time was just half a second off his qualifying time at last year's Malaysian GP, on a different machine. In the Barcelona test, his time on the Yamaha was 1,2 seconds off his qualifying time on his previous bike. So progress is rapid. His teammate at Prima Pramac Yamaha MotoGP, Miguel Oliveira, finished P8, and the last Yamaha rider on track on day three was the new test rider Augusto Fernandez, which focused on adaptation to the M1 but also had a “calibrator” prototype.

At Honda, Alex Espargaro led the charge on day three, his name appearing three times on the timesheets after splitting his workload across different machines. To compare his 1'58.106s, the fastest Honda in Q2 at the 2024 Malaysian GP was that of Johann zarco with a 1'57.971 for the Castrol Honda LCR.

Surprisingly, the Q2 round ofAlex Espargaro that day was a 1'58.107 on his previous machine, just one thousandth slower than his Shakedown Day 3 time with the Honda. Takaaki Nakagami did not take to the track on Sunday and none of the official drivers were seen during this shakedown either, as had already been confirmed before. We will talk about it again on Wednesday.

Aprilia test rider, Lorenzo Savadori, after having debugged the 10 RS-GP 25s present, worked on another version of the 2025 on Sunday, and it seems that the beginner Ai Ogura also tried new parts… already!

Espargaro Pol finished fifth for KTM and Dani Pedrosa ninth on day three. For now, the biggest news in the Red Bull KTM camp is the new rear end kit spotted on Saturday, which inevitably suggests a volume capable of accommodating a mass damper…

Michele Pirro continued to check everything to prepare for the arrival of the Ducati Lenovo Team duo Marc Marquez et Francis Bagnaia. Later on the second day, a new aerodynamic evolution was spotted, as well as the chassis seen on one of the MM93 runs during the Barcelona test.