There was another day of action in the desert on Tuesday with the MotoGP™ class back on track for the ultimate preseason testing day. Race simulations, time attacks and final adjustments were on the menu for both Red Bull GASGAS Tech3’s Pedro Acosta and Augusto Fernandez, who will now be eager to go racing in a bit more than two weeks. Indeed, the countdown is well and truly on as the Losail International Circuit will host the opening round of the 2024 MotoGP™ World Championship on March 8-10, 2024. We can not wait.

Better track conditions than yesterday awaited the riders when the green flag was waved at 14:00 local time in Doha, but Pedro Acosta waited until 3pm to get on with his testing plan. Early fast laps came in from all places in the timesheets, and the young rookie Pedro Acosta quickly improved his lap times, with a 1’52.803 on lap 27, before he launched himself into a full race simulation (21 laps) at around 18:00. If there was a small crash in the first laps, without any major consequences as he got up and rejoined, the simulation was very positive for MotoGP™’s new 31. He clocked in 13 of 21 laps in the 1’53, showing already great consistency for what was his first run on the long haul. As one hour remained under the floodlights of Doha, Acosta worked on his time attacks within the final forty-minutes with fresh sets of tyres. A lap in 1’52.046 was his fastest and best lap of the test, which is 0.284 seconds from the all -time lap record held by Luca Marini (2023 Qatar GP). That lap would have placed him fifth on the grid in November, had he been a MotoGP™ rider yet! Of course many riders improved their pace in the last two days, with Pecco Bagnaia un-officially breaking the all-time record with a 1’50.952, but the rookie will be heading to his first-ever MotoGP™ race with a lot of positives from these two final days of testing.

Augusto Fernandez also finalised his pre-season preparation as he focused on his race setting all throughout the day. He was the first one to go out today in better conditions than on Monday, and was amongst the last to finish, after having put a lot of work in, with a total of eighty-three laps, and ended the day with the most laps clocked in. He continued to look for ways to improve his feeling with the 2024 package, and there were positives coming from the new aero package, an encouraging point for the number 37 of Red Bull GASGAS Tech3. As the night fell on the Losail International Circuit, Fernandez worked on a sprint simulation, with lap times equivalent to the ones back in November at the Grand Prix of Qatar. After that, he concluded his testing campaign with some time attacks and managed to clock in a lap in 1’52.770, which is faster than his qualifying lap from a few months ago.

Both riders and team are now fully ready to go racing after a successful preseason testing. We can not wait! Rendez-vous in Doha in two weeks!