With two tests in the books for the MotoGP riders, a clear pattern is starting to emerge. Marc Márquez and Maverick Viñales are a cut above the rest so far. At both Sepang and Phillip Island, Viñales had the edge on outright speed, topping the timesheets. On race pace, though, Márquez was running the kind of consistent speed usually associated with Jorge Lorenzo. If you were heading to your local bookies today, you would be putting your money down on Márquez, with a little side bet on Viñales just in case.

But while all of the attention has been on the emerging duel between the two young Spaniards, that doesn’t mean we can just write off the rest of the field. If anything, the first two tests of 2017 show that the MotoGP grid has never been stronger. That is in part due to factories such as Suzuki and Aprilia closing the gap to Honda, Yamaha and Ducati. It is also in part due to the 2016 bikes filtering down to the satellite teams. Last year they were stuck with 2015 machines, designed around the Bridgestone tyres, while the 2016 bikes were designed to cope with the character of the Michelins. Then there’s the arrival of arguably the best group of rookies since 2010, the year which saw riders such as Ben Spies, Marco Simoncelli, Alvaro Bautista and Aleix Espargaro enter the class.

At the opposite end of the novelty spectrum, there is Valentino Rossi. The Italian was strong in Sepang, but less impressive at Phillip Island, ending the three-day test in eleventh spot. Rossi’s performance at the Island was illustrative of why you should never take testing results at face value. While teammate Viñales was out focussing on race pace, and working on getting the best out of the rear tyre late in the race, Rossi was working through a big pile of parts, some of which worked and some of which didn’t. Rossi is faster than the timesheets show, but there were also signs of weakness. Rossi looked pale and thin after an Asian tour promoting Yamaha, and was under the weather throughout the test. Yamaha team boss Maio Meregalli put that down to Rossi’s age. He should be fine racing in Europe, but the three back-to-back flyaway races might take a little too much out of him.

On paper, Cal Crutchlow had the third strongest test at Phillip Island behind Márquez and Viñales. With Dani Pedrosa as third fastest overall, the Honda looks to be in good shape. They have been testing two different specs of their new Big Bang engine and did a lot of work to get the electronics clicking together at Phillip Island. The Repsol Honda team head to Jerez later this week for another test of the engine, which should set them up for the start of the season. Márquez says that Honda are in better shape now than at the start of 2016. That bodes well for everyone on an RC213V. That includes Jack Miller, who will have access to updates again, now that his former crew chief Cristian Gabarrini has moved back to Ducati.

The athlete Gabarrini has gone to help is still struggling a little to find his feet. The Ducati Desmosedici is the polar opposite of the Yamaha, and Jorge Lorenzo is having to radically reinvent his riding style. That means figuring out how to brake later and deeper into corners. The proved tougher at Phillip Island, where there are few braking spots to speak of, and those which are tend to be very high speed. That leaves little room for working your way ‘up to it’: it’s all or nothing. Lorenzo may be helped by Ducati’s winglet replacement, which they are expected to test at Qatar. That might help keep the front wheel down at high speed, giving a bit more confidence at the first touch of the brakes.

But Ducati still have a lot of work to do. Andrea Dovizioso was not overflowing with praise, still concerned about the inability of the GP17 to turn through fast corners. The mood of Dovizioso and Lorenzo was not helped by the fact that Alvaro Bautista was once again exceptionally quick. The Spaniard has been rapid since climbing aboard the Aspar Ducati GP16, but the factory riders have not taken kindly to being outdone by a rider on an older bike. They are perhaps giving too much credit to the machine and not enough to Bautista. Hector Barbera, the other rider with a GP16, is being outperformed by his teammate Loris Baz riding a GP15. Scott Redding, also on a GP16, is struggling in the tail end. Bautista is just riding really well. It’s as simple as that.

There has been something of a turnaround at Suzuki. At Sepang, it was Andrea Iannone who was fastest, the Italian taking the lead role in the team. At Phillip Island, Alex Rins took another step forward, comprehensively outshining his teammate. It has been an impressive journey for the Spanish rookie. He lost a lot of confidence after the big crash he had at Valencia last year. He regained some of that at Sepang, but struggled on the first day at Phillip Island. Once he found his feet, Rins turned into the rider we had all thought he was: fast, confident, a natural talent. He was signed by Suzuki to be the new Maverick Viñales. Is that too much to ask? It’s a little too early to tell, but things are looking good.

Rins was not the only quick rookie. Both Jonas Folger and Johann Zarco were also sprightly on the Monster Tech 3 Yamahas. At Sepang, it had been Zarco who had impressed; at Phillip Island, it was the turn of Folger. The German youngster was not just quick over a single lap, but like Zarco at Sepang, he also had solid pace. Zarco is playing to expectations in taking a steady and methodical approach to building speed. Folger has tended to be erratic, capable of winning races in Moto2, but also just as likely to finish outside the points. Perhaps he will fit into the regime demanded by MotoGP a little better. A little consistency would go a very long way for the German.

The Phillip Island test confirmed what we saw at Sepang. This is an incredibly strong field, and with Aprilia improving, and KTM entering the fray, it is getting tougher and tougher at the top. 2017 has all the makings of another classic season, and so far, testing has not done anything to dispel that notion. Roll on Qatar.

Photos by CormacGP