MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

The return to Misano has been a return to the current Natural Order in MotoGP. Despite a damp start in the morning, by the afternoon, the timesheet gave a very clear picture of the lie of the land. I will let Marc Márquez explain.

"We know that always in the Covid times, the second GP [at the same track] was always super tight. And in fact everything is very tight, everything is fast, everybody is fast," the Gresini Ducati rider told us.

But that closeness belied the fact that there are two riders who are a cut above the rest at the moment. "It's true that when it's better grip conditions, the pattern of this year is it looks like Martin and Bagnaia do a step, and in fact today, they were much faster than us."

A cut above

The timesheets bear this out. On Friday afternoon, Pecco Bagnaia did a lap of 1'30.902 on a set of medium tires which had 14 laps on them, just over half race distance. Jorge Martin did a 1'30.844 on a set with 12 laps on them.

Nobody else got close. Marc Márquez did a 1'31.3. Enea Bastianini a 1'31.4. Maverick Viñales did a pair of 1'31.6s, and Pedro Acosta matched that on a used soft rear. Bagnaia and Martin have four tenths on the rest of the field, and will be battling for victory at the head of the field. There will be a larger group behind fighting over the last place on the podium, most likely with Marc Márquez at their head.

Michelin will not be introducing a new front tire at for the 2025 season. At a breakfast organized for the media at Misano on Friday morning, Michelin's head of two-wheeled motorsport, Piero Taramasso explained that although the feedback from the tire test at Misano had been positive, the tire still needed work to be ready.

Taramasso later explained to Simon Crafar on the MotoGP.com live feed some of the background to the test. The test had been good, and the comments of all of the riders had been the same. "For example, they said, yeah, the tire has more grip, we feel more contact patch, but the bike is heavy," Taramasso told Crafar. "They said the tire, we feel a good potential, we can push, but it moves too much. The movement is good, because it gives feedback, but it moves too much when you try to brake hard." Some riders liked the new front, others liked it less, and others were caught in between.