8 significant things that happened in MotoGP's Aragon test

Tech3 KTM rider Maverick Vinales topped MotoGP's post-Aragon Grand Prix test with a new record lap.

Aragon Grand Prix dominator Marc Marquez was the first rider in the 1m45s range - alone to do so in the first multi-hour session - but was joined by three other riders in that laptime range in the afternoon.

And he was denied the clean sweep of the two sessions as Vinales and Bezzecchi popped up ahead of him in the closing minutes of the day, Vinales now possessing MotoGP's best-ever Aragon laptime of 1m45.694s.

The only other rider in that laptime range was Gresini rookie Fermin Aldeguer, who was quick all throughout and said his best laptime - a quarter of a second off Vinales - was set on used medium rubber.

Pedro Acosta (KTM) and Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati) completed the top six, both shrugging off crashes during the day.

Fabio Quartararo was the quickest Yamaha rider in seventh, while Joan Mir led Honda's effort in 10th.

Has Bezzecchi cracked the single-lap code?

It looked a positive test for Aprilia insofar as Bezzecchi seemed to approve of its upgraded aero - but at the mid-day break the Italian also acknowledged he was still struggling to exploit the RS-GP at peak grip.

He said the test was convenient given the high grip level offered by the track exacerbated his struggles - which was already apparent in-weekend, as his race pace was that of a podium contender but he came up short of the top 10 on Friday and then crashed in Q1.

But by the end of the Monday he seemed to make a big step, finding not only a record lap (which was then snatched away by Vinales) but more than a second relative to his personal best Aragon time, which had been set on the Ducati back in 2022.

Elsewhere at Aprilia, Lorenzo Savadori focused on a different electronics "philosophy" during the day.

Ducati's aero dilemma

Aerodynamics were the focus of Ducati's test, with both Bagnaia and Marquez using a front fairing that appeared to be an evolution on the one Ducati had brought to pre-season testing - which was put aside in favour of the more familiar aero once racing began.

In this latest test, works team boss Davide Tardozzi said Bagnaia was "quite happy" with the revised aero - but that Marquez "still has some question marks", which was corroborated by the man himself.

"We did the [best] laptime with that aero package, but with the standard one was very close," he said. "We need to understand which one is the best one."

Bagnaia, too, acknowledged that for all of his positive impressions with it, now wasn't quite the time to commit to it just yet - and tester Michele Pirro will put more mileage on it in private testing in Barcelona.

'The most positive test' of Bagnaia's 2025

In addition to the aero (and new swingarm) testing, Bagnaia spent the day verifying his findings from the weekend: that he was much more comfortable with Brembo's 355mm carbon front discs on the GP25 than on the more commonly-used 340mm discs.

And he felt confirmation of this was delivered.

"Yes, luckily, yes," he said. "I think it's the most positive test I had this season.

"It was important after yesterday's race that I started to understand better and I was taking confidence lap by lap.

"Today from the start of the day I was quite happy and was able to test items - that for example in Jerez [I couldn't because it] was impossible to understand anything."

Bagnaia finished seventh in the morning session and ninth in the afternoon - but indicated those best times were set on used tyres.

Yamaha engine upgrade gets thumbs up

Yamaha riders tested some new aero - which yielded no big change - and electronics, as well as the new engine (seemingly the spec Augusto Fernandez campaigned as a wildcard this past weekend at Aragon).

Regarding the engine, both Fabio Quartararo and Miguel Oliveira echoed Fernandez's verdict of the engine being a marginal power increase with no drawbacks - and Alex Rins estimated that gain as being as much as 2km/h. But Quartararo was irritated by a lack of progress with electronics shortcomings, which he felt had already needlessly hampered his race weekend. 

Oliveira and Pramac team-mate Jack Miller - who both had crashes during the day - will join Fernandez in testing privately at Barcelona later this week.

Zarco 'wowed' by Honda part

It wasn't evident on the peak laptimes, also because, according to Johann Zarco himself, he ran a less-than-optimal engine in terms of mileage to preserve better ones for race weekends - but Zarco was very encouraged by one piece Honda gave him to try.

He described the new Honda carbon swingarm as having a "wow" impact and "something very interesting" - that he still will have to wait a little bit to race.

"We gained a lot in acceleration. But also on the braking. We had a better control of the rear grip - immediately the laptime is coming better," Zarco summarised.

KTM's development work

KTM put a new Ducati-esque aero package through its paces, while also dedicating more work to the bulky tail unit thought to contain a mass damper - which has been favoured by Enea Bastianini but not the other KTM riders during the season.

Vinales - who gave the new aero his tentative approval in terms of generating more off-brake turning (which could come in handy for upcoming tracks) - described the seat unit as an important component to refine, as when it's set up correctly it significant mitigates the RC16's vibration issues.

Gonzalez's debut goes well

Joint Moto2 points leader Manu Gonzalez capitalised well on his unexpected MotoGP test debut, made possible by Ai Ogura's continued injury absence.

Gonzalez's progress through the day was halted a little by a reported first crash, but he had made an impression on Trackhouse team boss Davide Brivio.

"I have to say that he's been on the pace quite quickly! The first run he went out, 1m49s, which was, OK, surprising," Brivio said.

It ultimately got better from there, with Gonzalez ending the day 2.1s off the pace - impressive given he didn't have the experience of the race weekend, much less a full season with the bike - to lean back on - and a tenth up on LCR Honda regular Somkiat Chantra.

Radio and tyres

As is increasingly conventional for in-season tests, both the new Michelin front tyre and a communication system were trialled.

Michelin is still waiting whether or not to sign off on the introduction of the long-in-development new front tyre for 2026. It has been a long-awaited debut considering the current front is widely seen as outdated relative to the rest of the modern MotoGP package - but Michelin might be disincentivised to push on with its development now given it is being replaced as tyre supplier by Pirelli for 2026.

As for communications, which here were being trialled as race control-to-rider messaging, Alex Marquez believes this will be introduced next year as a safety measure.

What is being trialled is a bone conduction system rather than an in-ear solution, which is seen as a much bigger safety risk in case of crashing. Marquez and Savadori both said it was comfortable enough on Monday - but both pointed out that it wasn't always easy to hear the messages due to helmet movement on the straight and high revs, and that they were most audible in places where the rider would not want them - i.e. during cornering.

And Zarco argued that MotoGP should look at making it in-ear after all, with the Frenchman worried about the potential longer-term impacts of the system as is on his hearing.

"The system is not good," he insisted. "The best system would be to do it like in F1."