2018 MotoGP season in the starter’s hands

The 2018 season will get underway when the teams descend on the Sepang International Circuit for the official three-day test slated for 28-30 January.

It’s the second official chance riders will have to test for the 2018 season following the post-season test at Valencia last year, however with Honda the only manufacturer to bring the 2018-spec machine to the Valencia test, Sepang is the first time teams will pull the wraps off near-finished versions of the 2018 season’s machinery.

Pit lane will be open for eight hours on each of the three days, effectively giving riders and teams a 24-hour window of track time to develop and hone the 2018 bikes, all of which will be streamed live on the MotoGP website where subscribers can follow the action.

Four rookies will be making their 2018 debuts later this week; Franco Morbidelli and Tom Lüthi both riding for the Estrella Galicia MarcVDS Honda squad, Takaaki Nakagami will line up alongside the experienced LCR Honda veteran Cal Crutchlow, while Xavier Simeon will get his first taste of a MotoGP-spec prototype when he exits pit lane on his Reale Avintia Racing Ducati on Sunday morning.

It will be both Simeon and Lüthi’s first run on their premier-class machines, after the duo was sidelined with illness and injury for the post-season test last November.

Elsewhere in the paddock, all eyes will be on Aussie Jack Miller (OCTO Pramac Ducati) to see if he can continue his stellar form of his first November outing on the Ducati. The 23-year-old Queenslander instantly felt comfortable on the bike which finished runner-up in the 2017 championship, posting his fastest-ever lap of the Ricardo Tormo circuit and bettered his best Honda lap time by 0.5 seconds. Though it’s cited as being one of the better handling Ducati machines of recent times, the GP17 is still often criticised for being a handful to tame, most notably in the middle of the corner.

Championship leader Marc Marquez will be strong as he continues his championship-winning momentum alongside his Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa. Expect Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) to be strong out the blocks as he looks to go one better than his second-place finish in the 2017 season alongside his teammate Jorge Lorenzo. With a year of experience under the five-time world champ’s belt, Lorenzo will be doing everything he can to turn his 2018 season into one where he’s consistently fighting for the podium and race wins.

The Movistar Yamaha pairing of Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales (who’s just announced an extension of his contract with Yamaha until the end of 2020) will hope they can replicate the pre-season results of last year where they consistently topped the timesheets, but will be working hard to ensure the season itself plays out differently. The factory Yamaha squad started strong but results dwindled throughout the season and, as rivals improved around them, the pair struggled to find confidence in the 2017-spec chassis.

It meant Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rookie Johann Zarco often finished ahead of the factory riders and the double Moto2 world champ raised more than a few eyebrows when he was fast on the 2017-spec machine at the post-season Valencia test. He’ll be determined to show up his factory-backed counterparts at this week’s event. His teammate Jonas Folger will be absent after recently withdrawing from the 2018 championship due to an ongoing illness.

Pit lane will open at 10:00am local time on Sunday, January 28.