Pecco Bagnaia consolidated his status as the rider to beat ahead of the 2024 MotoGP World Championship as he comfortably set the pace on the first day of pre-season testing in Qatar.

The double World Champion looked in ominously strong form as he powered to the top of the timesheets during the time attack runs towards the final hour of the day, Bagnaia doing so after bolting on the 2024-specification aero to his factory Ducati.

Instantly up to speed, having been bothering the upper echelons for much of the day anyway, while Bagnaia's 1m 52.040secs fell well short of Luca Marini's lap record of the Lusail International Circuit, it was enough to command a 0.2secs advantage over closest rival, his 2023 sparring partner Jorge Martin.

Day 1/2 - Headlines at a glance...

• 🚀 Pecco Bagnaia bolts on the 2024 Ducati aero and immediately makes his mark by comfortable margin over Jorge Martin
• ⏱️ Ducati holds down five of the top eight as Aprilia shows strongly too
• 💥 Falls for Jack Miller (T6) and Augusto Fernandez (T1)
• 📋 RESULTS and LAP TIMES below

In second, Martin continued his rapid form from Malaysia in the sister Pramac Ducati GP24, but will be concerned to be ceding even as little as two tenths to his big target for this season, once again.

An impressive day all round for Aprilia, the manufacturer toasted the launch of the 2024-spec RS-GP over the weekend by sitting at the summit of the timesheets for much of the day.

Briefly running 1-2-3 deep into the evening, eventually it was Aleix Espargaro that would head up the Noale challenge in third place, 0.3s off the top spot, while Brad Binder made late gains to fly the flag for KTM on an otherwise muted evening for the Austrian marque, in fourth.

Fabio di Giannantonio - the Qatar MotoGP race winner in November - rebounded back up the order late on to claim fifth fastest on the VR46 Ducati, ahead of Maverick Vinales and Alex Marquez, the Gresini rider faring better than his team-mate and brother Marc Marquez, who could only manage 16th fastest.

Though the first test was largely dominated by the Ducati and Aprilia contingent over the course the day with its machines locking out the top positions for long periods, late gains by other marques helped break things up a bit with Johann Zarco and Fabio Quartararo sparing blushes at Honda and Yamaha to squeeze into the top ten in ninth and tenth respectively, just behind 2022 Qatar MotoGP winner Enea Bastianini.

Elsewhere, Marco Bezzecchi's apparent struggles to dial into the Ducati GP23 continued as he spent much of the day outside the top ten, eventually landing in 11th, while Raul Fernandez made up for lost time after missing the Sepang test through injury by briefly leading the timesheets before sliding to 12th on the Trackhouse Aprilia.

A fairly uneventful day for fallers all round, that was no consolation for KTM as Jack Miller suffered a late tip-off at Turn 6, while Augusto Fernandez's tough start to the year continued with two crashes and a technical issue leaving him 20th.

Elsewhere, while Zarco was a late gainer on fresh tyres, Honda will be disappointed to see the majority of its riders bringing up the rear-quarters with Joan Mir 13th, Takaaki Nakagami 17th and Luca Marini in 18th

2024 MotoGP Pre-Season Testing | Qatar, Official Testing Results [Day 1/2 FINAL]

Monday [FINAL] | Day 1 of 2 | Conditions - Sunny, Hot

Sepang Circuit | Lap Records