{"id":462059,"date":"2026-02-06T10:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T10:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/462059\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T10:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T10:14:10","slug":"alex-marquez-stars-in-sepang-sprint-simulation-too-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/462059\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Marquez stars in Sepang Sprint simulation: \u201cToo much!\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If the Sprint simulations by leading riders on the final day of the Sepang MotoGP test had been a real race, Alex Marquez would have emerged as the winner.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/teams\/gresini-racing-motogp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gresini<\/a> rider, runner-up to Francesco Bagnaia in last October\u2019s Malaysian MotoGP Sprint race, turned the tables on the factory Ducati rider by being 1.385s faster over their respective ten-lap simulations.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/935450\/alex-marquez\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alex Marquez\u2019s <\/a>run featured a blistering 1m 57.295s on lap two, on his way to an average lap time of 1m 58.028s, compared with Bagnaia\u2019s 1m 58.166s.<\/p>\n<p>Reigning <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MotoGP<\/a> champion Marc Marquez, who missed last year\u2019s Malaysian Grand Prix due to injury, completed an all-Ducati GP26 top three in the Sprint sims.<\/p>\n<p>Marc averaged 1m 58.289s and was 2.613s slower than his brother over the sim distance.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/sprintsims.png\"   type=\"image\/png\" alt=\"Leading Sprint Simulations, Sepang MotoGP Test\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:2.18\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Leading Sprint Simulations, Sepang MotoGP Test<\/p>\n<p>Alex Marquez later described the 1m 57.2s lap as \u201ctoo much\u201d and, despite his eye-catching pace, admitting to making \u201ctoo many\u201d mistakes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaybe too much in the beginning! A 57.2,\u201d Marquez smiled when asked about his Sprint simulation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the first simulation this year and later on I did too many mistakes. Small ones, but too many mistakes. I lost one second or more. But for the rest, I&#8217;m happy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe tried a few things, focussing on trying to improve a little bit the setup that we were missing in the first and second day, and to extract the potential from the bike.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like I think we are a little bit better than last year, a little bit more competitive. Not a big step, but a few [small] steps, and there\u2019s still a few more things to try on Thailand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo I\u2019m quite happy about the day, and the test, but the pre-season is always a little bit strange!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After coming under pressure from Aprilia and KTM towards the end of last season, Ducati was on top at Sepang for both outright lap time and Sprint simulations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe first race weekend in Thailand is where we&#8217;ll see if we have advantage or not,\u201d Marquez said. \u201cIn the test, it&#8217;s difficult to see. So we need to keep calm because I think not everybody put all their potential on the track.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Alex Marquez, promoted to factory spec machinery this year, was the only Gresini rider on track with team-mate Fermin Aldeguer still recovering from a femur fracture in training last month.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>The final pre-season test takes place at Buriram on February 21-22.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If the Sprint simulations by leading riders on the final day of the Sepang MotoGP test had been&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8454,17197,8455,43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-462059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-alex-marquez","9":"tag-ducati","10":"tag-gresini-racing-motogp","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}