David Emmett

Pecco Bagnaia has set a new outright lap record at the Jerez circuit in the afternoon timed practice session. The factory Ducati rider pulled out a blistering lap at the end of the session to take over a tenth off his own existing record set here in 2022.

Pedro Acosta gave us a reminder of why we say that the season starts for real once the paddock returns to Jerez. "The problem here is that everybody is so fast," the GASGAS Tech3 rider said on Friday. "Because since the CEV they were doing many laps here, like hell. Imagine how many laps in winter tests or with Panigales or whatever. Everything is so close, so close. I am sixth but the gap until tenth is less than one tenth, for this it is quite difficult." Acosta's time of 1'36.439 puts him exactly one tenth of a second ahead of Alex Marquez in tenth, and a time of 1'36.539.

The sprint races were added to the MotoGP schedule to give the fans something extra to look forward to on Saturday, to help circuits by filling the stands. And judging by the packed grandstands at Jerez, it's working rather well. Half distance races are intense and exciting and add an extra dimension to MotoGP.

After a thrilling and cold round of WorldSBK at Assen, Steve and Gordo sat down with MotoGP veteran Mat Oxley to discuss the state of WorldSBK, what BMW is doing in the series, and what that means for MotoGP. And Steve interviews BMW team boss Shaun Muir about the impact that the arrival of Toprak Razgatlioglu at the Bavarian manufacturer has had.

Officially, there were 296,741 people at the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez this weekend. While that features a lot of double counting and dubious statistics - crowd sizes for MotoGP, like many other sporting events, are very much the Enron of attendance figures - it is undoubtedly true that there were a lot of people at Jerez. And I really do mean a lot of people. An extra seating area has been added at the circuit, and the crowds were all the way up the hillsides again, with people nestled in between the trees.

It has been a busy morning at the Jerez MotoGP post-race test. At noon, Pecco Bagnaia topped the timesheets, half a second off the outright lap record set at the grand prix. Brad Binder is currently second, ahead of Marc Marquez and Maverick Viñales.

Testing is well underway at Jerez, with the riders doing a lot of laps already this morning. Biggest visual surprise of the day is Yamaha's new fairing. It is a completely new design, clearly from the hand of their new ex-Ducati head of aerodynamics Marco Nicotra. The fairing has a wider side with a wing and ledge, as seen on both the 2024 Ducati and Aprilia MotoGP bikes. It also has a larger downwash duct and a triple blade front wing, which is larger. Alex Rins has been using the fairing this morning so far.

Fabio Di Giannantonio topped the timesheets at a busy day of testing for the MotoGP class at Jerez. The Pertamina Enduro VR46 was four tenths slower than the outright lap record set this weekend by Pecco Bagnaia, and was a fraction faster than Aprilia's Maverick Viñales. Franco Morbidelli set the third quickest time, finishing just ahead of Pecco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez. Brad Binder was the first of the KTMs in sixth, while Viñales'Aprilia teammate Aleix Espargaro was seventh. Alex Marquez, Enea Bastianini and Jorge Martin made it seven Ducatis in the top ten.

Testing after a race is always tricky affair. There is a weekend's worth of Michelin rubber on the track, and then another 24 riders spend all day laying down yet more rubber - a grand total of 1706 between all of them, for a total distance of 7545.638 kilometers. By the end of the day, the conditions are just not going to get much better.

The Cathedral of Speed is to remain on both MotoGP and WorldSBK championship calendars through the 2031 season. The iconic Dutch track today announced an extension of their contract which will see the Dutch TT round of MotoGP, and the Dutch round of WorldSBK at the circuit for the foreseeable future.