2025 Buriram MotoGP Test vs 2024 Qualifying: Mir And The Marquez Brothers Most Improved

By David Emmett |

Joan Mir has made the biggest improvement in qualifying times compared to the race weekend in October last year, the Honda HRC Castrol rider cutting nearly two thirds of a second off qualifying lap in 2024.

The Marquez brothers both made a big step compared to the race weekend, Marc Marquez just over half a second faster than last year, Alex Marquez just under half a second. 

Raul Fernandez' improvement has to be a sign of how much the Aprilia has improved, the Trackhouse Racing man riding with a recently operated metacarpal bone in his left hand at the test, and yet still nearly four tenths quicker than in qualifying last year. 

Luca Marini's improvement confirms that Honda's progress is real, the second factory Honda rider 0.354 quicker than last year, while Pedro Acosta improved by nearly three tenths on the KTM. 

Marco Bezzecchi is over a quarter of a second faster on the Aprilia than he had been on the Ducati GP23, a sign of both how good the 2025 Aprilia RS-GP is, as well as how much he struggled on the Ducati GP23 last year.

At the other end of the table, Enea Bastianini has lost the most ground, the Italian nine tenths slower on the KTM RC16 than he had been on the Ducati GP24. Pecco Bagnaia was also much slower than he was in qualifying, but that has more to do with just how incredibly fast Bagnaia was at the race last year than his speed at the test.

2025 Buriram test times compared to 2024 race weekend:

No. Rider 2024 bike 2024 Q1/2 2025 bike 2025 Test Diff
36 Joan Mir Honda 1:30.045 Honda 1:29.399 -0.646
93 Marc Marquez Ducati GP23 1:29.386 Ducati 1:28.855 -0.531
73 Alex Marquez Ducati GP23 1:29.527 Ducati 1:29.034 -0.493
25 Raul Fernandez Aprilia 1:30.102 Aprilia 1:29.732 -0.370
10 Luca Marini Honda 1:30.137 Honda 1:29.783 -0.354
37 Pedro Acosta KTM 1:29.419 KTM 1:29.133 -0.286
21 Franco Morbidelli Ducati GP24 1:29.736 Ducati 1:29.454 -0.282
72 Marco Bezzecchi Ducati GP23 1:29.324 Aprilia 1:29.060 -0.264
43 Jack Miller KTM 1:29.773 Yamaha 1:29.617 -0.156
12 Maverick Viñales Aprilia 1:29.628 KTM 1:29.606 -0.022
5 Johann Zarco Honda 1:29.797 Honda 1:29.882 +0.085
20 Fabio Quartararo Yamaha 1:29.406 Yamaha 1:29.586 +0.180
33 Brad Binder KTM 1:29.535 KTM 1:29.732 +0.197
42 Alex Rins Yamaha 1:29.835 Yamaha 1:30.062 +0.227
32 Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia 1:30.592 Aprilia 1:31.207 +0.615
63 Francesco Bagnaia Ducati GP24 1:28.700 Ducati 1:29.378 +0.678
23 Enea Bastianini Ducati GP24 1:28.932 KTM 1:29.837 +0.905

Buriram lap records

Year Session Rider Bike Time
2023 Race Marco Bezzecchi Ducati 1:30.896
2024 Q2 Pecco Bagnaia Ducati 1:28.700
2025
MotoGP
Buriram, Thailand
↑Back to top

Comments

I'm hoping they have improved enough for Fabio to get into Q1 on a regular basis. As long as he can compete for the front row, he'll get some front rows. A good first lap, less traffic than 10 places back and he'll make the leaders sweat over a race distance. If they have improved enough that other Yamahas can join in, even better. It's just that fast Yamahas at Sepang warrant a sideways glance and some hope but not much else.

I keep trying to think of a test, a track they must show good at and then we know. I always used to think that until Ducati can go well at Phillip Island, they will front fold all the titles away. Not too far away from the truth as it turned out. Yamaha ?....The first four rounds are odd, we would expect good pace in Texas and maybe Losail but Losail can just be extra odd and then pfff. Jerez. It would be no surprise to see a Yamaha show well there but maybe that's it. Jerez they should go well but they haven't been going well because they lost too much out the turns. A good showing at Jerez, on pace, at least shows they are near enough to benefit from their traditional qualities. 

Quartararo and his team did have their best weekend at Sepang last year. The tire issue at Buriram tempered the enthusiasm from the Sepang test. Was it a tire issue or something with the bike? Were they searching for more rear grip which upset the balance of the bike? Miller has adapted quickly to the Yamaha. He and Dovi, both having spent a lot of years on Ducatis, maybe they can help direct the engineers towards solutions for the rear grip problem.