Lap-times and shredded rubber continued to fly at Jerez for the first of three mid-season testing days in 2025 and the full Red Bull KTM complement were circulating the sun-backed asphalt. Maverick Viñales notched the 2nd quickest chrono from the day with Pedro Acosta also in the top five.
The packed grandstands from the weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix had emptied but MotoGP pace remained at Jerez on a sunny and windy Monday. Red Bull KTM Factory Racing and Red Bull KTM Tech3 each had a comprehensive quota for the four riders that ranged from new components for aerodynamics and chassis, as well as work on data collection and refining of race settings for the KTM RC16s. A separate pitbox was occupied by Dani Pedrosa and the test team as the Spaniard clocked more than 70 laps in his work on both current and next generations parts.
Pedro Acosta, Enea Bastianini, Brad Binder and Maverick Viñales rounded Jerez for nearly 300 laps on a high-grip surface from 10.00 until the latter stages of the session that ended at 18.00.
Acosta had a small crash in the morning that forced reorganization of the agenda but otherwise the quartet were able to accumulate more essential mileage in the quest for increased competitiveness this season. Four KTM RC16s ranked in the top five for the highest speed. Viñales broke the timing beam with the 2nd fastest lap and 0.3 from P1. He was followed by Acosta in 5th and then Binder in 13th and Bastianini in 14th.
Dani Pedrosa will test again on Tuesday. Round six will take place at Le Mans for the Grand Prix of France next week. The next one-day IRTA test will occur on Monday after the Aragon Grand Prix on 6-8 June.
Maverick Viñales, Red Bull KTM Tech3, 2nd: “I tried to understand the bike more today. On Sunday I was losing 0.1 of a second in Sector 1 and I wanted to understand well and improve for next year, and it went fantastically. Having time to work with the bike was nice. My rhythm was fast, and I did one quick lap that came easily. We can say that we are improving all the time. It was very windy today and there was good grip but I was working on my riding style and feeling with the bike.”
Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, 5th: “A good day. We tried many things, and it was not an evolution but an improvement, for sure. I was a bit wide for the crash; that was a disaster, but we got back to work. Monday tests are usually quite easy to be fast, for the grip, so not a real race situation. Let’s see the comments of the other guys.”
Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, 13th: “Testing has been good. We tried some different chassis modifications and it feels pretty positive and it has definitely helped my weakest point from the weekend, which was edge grip. My drive is slightly better, my feeling is coming along.”
Enea Bastianini, Red Bull KTM Tech3, 14th: “We made a step in a direction because I was fast, like in qualifying, but it was difficult for the wind today. Some things we tried helped me to be faster. Small improvements but that’s OK. I need to be more comfortable to be able to push a lot. But in some weeks I’m sure we can adapt more.”
Aki Ajo, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager: “We have been waiting for this day for a while because we’ve had to test during the last few races, and here we had the time and the conditions to look at more items and ideas. Dani will also continue riding tomorrow. We’ve made progress in the races and, in this category, development never stops and it is hectic. We had to ‘clean the table’ and keep the focus. Race weekends are so tough now that it’s useful to have a day to ride and to prove. We had new material to collect information as well as the work on settings. The wind disturbed us a bit…but it’s been a productive test.”
Sebastian Risse, KTM Technical Director MotoGP: “There has been a lot of learning in the Grand Prix races so far this season, so at this test we wanted to stabilize what we’ve been doing and take from each rider their preferences and check it with the other guys. This part went well and we’re happy about that. We are also working for the future in terms of aero homologation, chassis and electronics: in all these areas we made gains with data. We’ll be busy with analysis in the coming weeks and to bring the positives back to the track as soon as possible.”
Jerez official test final times
1. Marc Marquez (ESP) Ducati 1:35.876
2. Maverick Viñales (ESP) Red Bull KTM Tech3 +0.361
3. Fabio Quartararo (FRA) Yamaha +0.477
5. Pedro Acosta (ESP) Red Bull KTM Factory Racing +0.676
13. Brad Binder (RSA) Red Bull KTM Factory Racing +1.314
14. Enea Bastianini (ITA) Red Bull KTM Tech3 +1.350
23. Dani Pedrosa (ESP) Red Bull KTM Factory Racing +2.515