The reigning world champion Marc Márquez the fastest on Day 1 of the first preseason test of the 2026 MotoGP season at Sepang? That’s it, call it off, hand him the trophy and move on. Sarcasm? How could you tell?
There is always a lot of excitement about the times set at the Sepang MotoGP test. Understandable, after a long winter without any news. But the times from Sepang are complicated to interpret at best. And the times from the first day of the test triply so.
The bikes rolled out for the start of the morning session in the same trim as the teams packed them away at the end of the Valencia test. The reason for doing that is simple: to stimulate the muscle memory of the riders, remind them of how the bike that last rode felt. The first job of a MotoGP rider at Sepang is to acclimatize yourself to the brutal horsepower and massive speed of a MotoGP bike.
Then, there’s the fact that Michelin are forced by contract to bring two different rear compounds to the Sepang test. Pointless, as during the test and on a race weekend, everyone only wants to use the soft rear. So the first day of the test is also used to use up the medium rears the riders hate. They are useful for the basic work of the first day, but when the serious testing starts – that’ll be tomorrow, Wednesday – then the teams want as many softs available as possible.
