Marc Marquez shuns 2025 Ducati developments at Misano MotoGP test

Marc Marquez has revealed he only sampled the 2025-specification Michelin tyre in readiness for next season at the post-San Marino MotoGP Misano test, instead choosing to focus on refining his Gresini Ducati GP23 package.

The Spaniard went into the single day test on the back of his third MotoGP victory - one Sprint, two full-length - in little more than a week at Misano, the six-time MotoGP World Champion having judged sketchy conditions to perfection to catch and overhaul Pecco Bagnaia.

Enabling him to close the margin down on Jorge Martin in the overall standings to 53 points, though the Ducati Lenovo factory team he will compete with next season spent the test working on 2025-spec electronics, Marquez preferred to fine tune his current year-old GP23 package.

"We rode with the bike we had and we tried some of the things they had already used in some grands prix to finish discarding it and get it out of our heads,” Marquez - who was seventh fastest at the end of the day, told Motorsport.

“We have tried a little thing, a suspension in case tomorrow a problem arises and we will have the solutions.

“The last outing, which is normally when you put everything together, I went with yesterday's bike, this was the summary of the day."

While Marquez remains an outside bet for the title despite his run of victories, he indicated that he is still pushing for a strong finish to the year as he focused on improving his single lap time attack runs.

Indeed, with only two pole positions and four front row starts this year, Marquez recognises it is an area he must improve if he is to mount a late bid for title glory.

"It's more the base of set-up and we moved a little to see, but we immediately returned to what I feel comfortable with, especially to make race pace. What we have left to do is what I want to improve in the next races: to improve the attack over time."

Turning to the 2025 specification Michelin tyre, Marquez joined his contemporaries in describing it as ‘very different’ as he gave it a cautious thumbs up.

"I've tried it and it's very different, from the biggest changes at the tyre level, it's very stable. If you brake late it starts to work well, but it's a tyre that in the first laps when you left the box it seemed that they didn't know how to ride a bike, it made the bike very heavy. They have to work on the flexibility of the tyre."

"I don't have that problem, the bike is very stable under braking. At least in our box, stability in braking is precisely what our bike stands out for.”