The Italian Marco Bezzecchi set the best time in MotoGP training for the Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg. With a time of 1:28.533 minutes, the Ducati rider was slightly faster on Friday than Aprilia rider Maverick Vinales (+0.044 seconds) and world champion Francesco Bagnaia (+0.288/Ducati).
As the best KTM rider, Brad Binder ended up fourth (+0.330), Jack Miller (+0.867) was 14th and thus missed the jump of the top ten into “Q2”.
AP/Peter Dejong
In front of superstar Valentino Rossi, who retired two years ago, Bezzecchi was able to celebrate a course record at the Red Bull Ring after a new chicane was installed after the first corner last year.
Rossi shone off the track as a taxi driver on his moped, the Italian brought Bezzecchi back into the pits shortly before the end of the session after a technical failure. Binder can also look forward to a successful start to the weekend at the home GP of the red-white-red motorcycle manufacturer on Sunday (2 p.m.).
Adapted mode
MotoGP has adapted its mode a bit for this season. Two 15-minute qualifying sessions will take place at the Red Bull Ring on Saturday morning, in which the starting grid for the new sprint race over half the race distance on Saturday afternoon (3:00 p.m.) and the Austrian Grand Prix over 28 laps will be determined. The ten fastest drivers in Friday practice qualify directly for the second qualifying, “Q2” (11:15 a.m.) and fight for pole position there.
In the first qualifying, “Q1” (10.50 a.m.), the remaining twelve drivers who did not make it into the top ten in practice will fight for two more places in “Q2”. The starting places 13 to 22 are then fixed. In the sprint race, which, unlike in Formula 1, is held on every race weekend, points are also up for grabs for the World Championship standings. The winner gets 12 points, and ninth place gets one championship point.