Honda's and Yamaha's newest MotoGP bikes performed credibly in the hands of their respective test riders on the final Friday of the 2025 campaign in Barcelona - but it is clear Honda is further along.
Honda tester Aleix Espargaro was just six tenths off the fastest time, and two tenths off the fastest Honda regular, on a bike spec that he says both Joan Mir and Luca Marini will ride in the post-season test on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the latest iteration of the new V4-engined Yamaha placed 20th with Augusto Fernandez, a second off the pace and seven tenths back from the lead inline-four-engined Yamaha.
There had been very positive signs through the latter half of the season from Honda riders about what they had seen of Honda's 2026 work in private testing, and Espargaro's Friday performance here was the strongest he's looked in any of his appearances this season.
He attributed this to the fact he was rusty (and occasionally injured) earlier in the year, but more prepared due to a busier recent programme now - but also to the package being an improvement.
"Definitely this '26 bike is a lot better than the bike I rode for the first time in Malaysia [in the pre-season shakedown]," Espargaro said.
"Today, no excuses, I can tell you that this is not the limit of the bike. I pushed, really, but I saw that in the hard brakings, in acceleration, in the mid-corner, I have margin - or the bike has margin! The bike can go faster. I think this is a good sign.
"I need to be more brave with the time attack. I'm 36-years-old. I didn't do the time attack in a long time because during the test we cannot do time attacks, so I miss some speed in one single lap."
Espargaro said Honda's developments since the start of 2025 have already delivered more torque and more stability - the latter boosted by an upgraded swingarm he's running in Valencia.
"Still we have margin in the aero side, I think we have to work hard during the winter to improve, especially the fairing of the bike, for next year."
Yamaha tester Fernandez sounded less energised - though a crash early in the afternoon practice didn't help.
The manufacturer brought an upgraded chassis for the V4 engine (which it's expected to fully commit to for 2026) here, that was aimed to address the bike's inconsistency in performance over a race distance - which had been so evident in previous wildcard outings.
Fernandez said the new chassis is "slightly better" but "not the answer" and "only a small difference".
"The problems are the same in this track, which is kind of a positive as well," he said.
"With this chassis we have some [adjustment] room to play, some room [to lower the front end] to see if we can make a step on the problems that we have, with the front part of the bike.
"It [the front] is very critical. I crashed today on the third lap - hard front and no grip, but we’re suffering even more there."
Fernandez agreed when asked by The Race about the tendency for him crashing the V4 prototypes more than a test rider would usually be expected to.
"The problem is two things. Confidence in the front, that we are struggling with on this new bike. And without confidence on the front, the Michelin front tyre just crashes.
"And I think [it's good] for them to understand that we have a problem at that point, because I wasn’t going at 1m30s, I was doing 1m31s and I was on the floor.
"I think we understood well the weak point. The [new] chassis is slightly better on that point."
Fernandez did say of the engine that, while it's still running deliberately under-power, it is "very smooth, easy to manage" and smoother than the standard inline-four.
"I think I’m making the laptime on the gas - because on the entry [with the brakes] I have zero confidence," he said - but he acknowledged it still remains to be seen what the engine is like running at full power.
