Motorcycling - MotoGP - Valencia Grand Prix - Circuit Recardo Tormo, Valencia, Spain - November 26, 2023 Ducati Lenovo Team's Francesco Bagnaia during the race REUTERS/Pablo Morano
(Reuters) - Ducati's Francesco Bagnaia goes into the 2024 season as the clear MotoGP championship favourite seeking to become the first rider since Marc Marquez to win three titles in a row but the man he looks to emulate may himself be a dark horse this time.
Italian Bagnaia won the 2022 title the hard way when he overturned a 91-point deficit to end Ducati's 15-year drought, while last year he had Jorge Martin to contend with as the Pramac Racing rider pushed him all the way to the final weekend.
But Ducati are not resting on their laurels and pre-season testing in Qatar showed their GP 24 bike will be the one to beat as Bagnaia obliterated the lap record set last year by his team mate Enea Bastianini, who was second-fastest in the test.
"I anticipated we'd be hovering around the low one minute 51 seconds mark, but going below that was beyond my expectations," said Bagnaia, the only rider to set a time inside 1:51.
"We've fine-tuned our package in every aspect. The GP24 showed promise right from the Valencia test... We're well-prepared for the upcoming season opener."
MARQUEZ SWITCH
Six-times MotoGP champion Marquez joined Gresini Racing after ending an 11-year association with Honda a year early when the Japanese outfit failed to catch up with Ducati's bikes, the dominant force in MotoGP over the last two seasons.
Marquez won his last title in 2019 but his career nosedived soon after, with an injury in the season-opening race of 2020 ruling him out for the rest of the year.
Having secured an incredible 18 podiums in his final title-winning season, he has finished in the top three only six times since then.
Marquez has also crashed several times in recent seasons while attempting to ride Honda's bike beyond its limits while his arm has undergone four surgeries.
Meanwhile, Ducatis -- with superior aero packages, much better top speed and improved braking -- have cruised past Honda's riders, none of whom finished in the top 10 in the riders standings.
With Honda well off the pace, climbing aboard a Ducati machine on their satellite team was Marquez's best shot at competing again, especially after watching his brother Alex improve drastically following his switch to Gresini.
Marc spent the off-season familiarising himself with the Desmosedici GP23 bike and has had to adapt his riding style but the Spaniard looks a different beast on board a Ducati.
He showed he could be a force to reckon with after finishing fourth-fastest in pre-season testing in Qatar, where the season begins this weekend.
"I felt more comfortable with the bike straight away, I managed to start using the body more and that's already an improvement," he said.
"Instincts are still set on another type of motorcycle, but we're working on that department and changing my riding style... We've improved our pace on the longer run, we tried many things and push towards the limit."
ROOKIE ACOSTA
Lower down the grid, Spanish rookie Pedro Acosta will look to shake things up in the premier class after winning a Moto3 and Moto2 title in three years.
Acosta is only 19 but a seat in MotoGP was the talk of the grid midway through last season and he earned a ride with GasGas Factory Racing Tech3 after Pol Espargaro agreed to become a test rider following a bruising 2023 season.
The son of a fisherman, Acosta has come up the hard way with a fearless approach that has reaped dividends and comparisons to a young Marc Marquez who described him as a "super talent".
"He will be super fast during the season... Now the guys that arrive in MotoGP are super fast," Marquez said.
"Maybe it will take him more time or less time, but he will fight for the championship sooner or later."
This year may also be the last chance to impress with an overwhelming majority of riders on the grid seeing their contracts expire at the end of 2024.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris)
