The initial steps for Héctor Barberá and Álvaro Bautista ahead of their moves into MotoGP next season were enjoyed on Monday in the finale season testing at Valencia, with the former testing his satellite Ducati and the latter trying his new Suzuki at the Ricardo Tormo track.

Barberá, who arrives from Valencia and was victorious in the last ever 250cc GP event at home on Sunday, was excited to test his new Desmosedici 800cc machine which he will compete on for the fresh Aspar MotoGP squad next year. The Spaniard took 63 laps and claimed a decent best effort of 1’36.204 to finish the day 3.5s off Casey Stoner’s quickest time.

“This is like a dream,” states Barberá after the session. “This is an amazing moment in my career and we are looking to meet the very highest standards possible. I feel very comfortable in the Aspar team box again and the bike is amazing. It is very rigid in terms of drive which is similar to my old 250cc, but the grip is incredible and it feels like the straights are so much shorter. I’m still adapting of course, but you can feel the bike lifting up and it’s still hard for me to open the throttle fully.”

He adds, “The key objective was to make sure I did not crash. I felt pretty good on the bike and we went pretty fast, but I need to go step by step in order to get used to the bike which is at a similar level to the factory machines. It’s my first time on a four stroke bike and I didn’t know the lines to take but I’m learning quickly.”

Bautista added 52 turns on his new engine and lapped half a second faster than Barberá on an initial day of testing with the Rizla Suzuki squad.

He said, “I had a day of learning how to handle the machine and enjoyed myself out there. The bike is so powerful and it is not easy to ride at first but I think it’s easier than a 250cc machine. The main differences are the traction control and the tyres, which last much longer, so the feeling on cornering is much steadier. I think we actually did better than the laptimes show.”