Raul Fernandes, who suffered injuries during the past two seasons of Sepang MotoGP testing, was relieved to have completed the 2026 test feeling worn out but without any harm. The Trackhouse Aprilia rider, surprising many with a victory in 2025, finished the three-day session in Malaysia 10th on the time charts, trailing leader Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) by 0.843 seconds.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor two years, I couldn\u2019t even finish the first day, but now I\u2019ve completed three days of testing feeling exhausted, and that feels great,\u201d Fernandes said with a smile. \u201cThis test was crucial because of the aerodynamic package. We won\u2019t have time to homologate another aero setup, so we needed to make a clear choice before heading to Thailand. I\u2019m really happy because I settled on something I like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the progress, there are still challenges ahead for the RS-GP bike. \u201cThere are still aspects of the bike I\u2019m not comfortable with, so plenty of work remains,\u201d he admitted. \u201cThe hardest part is the time attack, especially when trying to push faster laps on soft tires. Right when the grip peaks, I can\u2019t fully exploit my riding style. This is what we need to figure out in Thailand\u2014how to unlock more potential with the soft tires.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Fernandes and Trackhouse can draw inspiration from factory rider Marco Bezzecchi, who posted the fastest time in the final afternoon and finished second overall behind Marquez. \u201cI think Aprilia has done a fantastic job, and the bike is competitive again,\u201d Fernandes said. \u201cAs Marko showed during the time attack, he was extremely fast. We need to find out what improvements they made in testing to enhance the time attack because if that gets better, race pace will follow.\u201d Fernandes\u2019 teammate Ai Ogura posted the 12th quickest time.<\/p>\n
Fan Take:<\/strong> This update is exciting for racing fans as it signals Aprilia\u2019s return to strong form and highlights Raul Fernandes\u2019 resilience and potential growth. If Aprilia can refine their time attack performance, the 2026 season could bring intense competition and thrilling races.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Raul Fernandes, who suffered injuries during the past two seasons of Sepang MotoGP testing, was relieved to have completed the 2026 test feeling worn out but without any harm. The Trackhouse Aprilia rider, surprising many with a victory in 2025, finished the three-day session in Malaysia 10th on the time charts, trailing leader Alex Marquez […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[7775,8728,7776,1308,18,889,117,3332,8506,238],"class_list":{"0":"post-42185","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-breathes","9":"tag-destruction","10":"tag-easy","11":"tag-fernandes","12":"tag-formula-racing","13":"tag-intense","14":"tag-racing","15":"tag-raul","16":"tag-sepang","17":"tag-test"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}