Valencia marks the last race on the calendar for MotoGP. Very rarely is it unexciting - it was just last year that a championship hinged on Rossi making a podium... from the back of the grid. This year, we've got more rider changes than at a game of musical chairs at the local church fair. And some of them lived up to the expectations set of them, to say the least.
The biggest signing of the season was the switch of Jorge Lorenzo to Ducati. He familiarised himself with the current bike, the GP16, before switching to the GP17. His teammate Andrea Dovizioso did development work with the GP17 on both days. Another big story in the paddock was Maverick Vinales' move to Yamaha. He was fastest on both days, although Lorenzo wasn't far behind. Also in the mix was the current world champion, Marc Marquez and the constant of MotoGP - Valentino Rossi. Andrea Iannone managed to jump onto the Suzuki and be quick right away as well, but he crashed heavily and injured his elbow. His teammate Alex Rins crashed at the same spot and compressed a couple of vertebrae - not the best way to start a MotoGP career.
However, look beyond the plain figures and you'll notice that both Vinales and Lorenzo spent a lot of time on the 2016 year models of their respective machines because they need to adapt to the new motorcycle. The riders that didn't switch to a new team got new-for-2017 motorcycles and they tested for new parts and components. The biggest news here was the Honda; all the Honda riders have struggled with the power delivery of the RC213V, so a new engine was brought to the test. It is a new firing order, judging from the noise, and here's where the real surprise lies: Marquez admitted that the maps weren't optimised to the new engine and they were running the maps from 2016. And yet he was consistently quick - so quick, in fact, that when you consider consistency, Marquez outshines everyone by a MotoGP mile. And that's with the wrong engine maps.
None of the frontrunners that tested new machinery were happy with the motorcycles - Rossi wanted more acceleration, and Marquez and Pedrosa will skip the next group test organised by Ducati because it doesn't give Honda enough time to make significant changes to the bike - but this is just the first test of the season. The final test of the pre-season is what will determine what to expect going into Qatar at the start of the season. However, judging from the Valencia test, with Marquez proving consistently quick of the lot, Vinales surprising, Lorenzo carrying on with fearsome pace and Rossi disappointed in the Yamaha's acceleration, the most obvious conclusion is that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
