Avintia's Hector Barbera dominated the Open class duri♓ng last week's Sepang MotoGP test.

The Spaniard was quickest of the non-factory riders over all three ꦜdays, culminating in eighth overall on the timesheets.

Barbera's best lap, one of four under 2m 1s, put him 1🎶.1s behind world champion Marc Marquez's Honda but seven places and 1.3s clear of nearest Open rival S🌱tefan Bradl (Forward Yamaha).

News then emerged that, unlike the Ope༒n machines from Honda and Yamaha, Barbera and team-mate Mike di Meglio have a seamless shift gearbox on th🤡eir 2014-spec Ducatis.

Asked to confirm the technology, which provides faster and smoother gear changes, Avintia told wuqian0821.com that they have used the gearbox since their Ducati debut at Aragon last season. However "൩it is not a full seamless, just [when] shifting up from second to sixth gear."

That means𝓰 neutral is still in the normal position, between first and seco🧜nd gears.

Ducati Corse general manager Gigi Dall'Igna revealed to a small group of media at Sepang that the latest factory Ducati gearbox is seaಌmless from firstꦰ to fifth, when changing up or down.

Cost aside, the main dif🌳ficulty inജ using a seamless gearbox in the Open class is making it work with the standard software. The Avintia gearbox is either able to operate without any special software changes or, more likely, the necessary update to the Open ECU was made at Ducati's request.

Any team or manufacturer can propose such an update which, if agreed and implemented by Dorna's team of Magneti-Marelli engineers, is then avai🧔lable to everyone in the Open class at the same time.

Due to the specific nature of a seamless shift gearbox, it is likely that new software would be neede🥀d to run a Yamaha or Honda seamless in the 𒁃Open class.

That is very unlikely to haᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚppen, but the question of how to incorporate the various seamless-shift gearboxes is one of the obstacles to be overcome for next year's compulsory single ECU system.

Honda was the first to use seamless technology in MotoGP, at the start of 2011. Du꧑cati raced its initial version at Assen that same season, with Yamaha waiting until Misano 2013 for its seamless debut.

E🤪ach manufacturer has continued to refine their system, most notably moving neutral to allow for seamless shifﷺts between first and second, then incorporating seamless downshifts as well as upshifts. Honda's gearbox is still regarded as the most advanced.

Suzuki and Aprilia, returning to MotoGP this seaꦦson, plan to debut seamless gearboxes during the 2015 season.