– Optimal start for KTM at the Grand Prix of Austria in Spielberg. In the first practice, Pedro Acosta and Pol Espargaro (Tech3) took the first two places. Jorge Martin (Aprilia) and Marc Marquez (Ducati) followed in third and fourth place.
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The weekend at the Red Bull Ring was moved from August to September for the first time. On Friday it was cloudy and with 12 degrees Celsius air and 15 degrees Celsius asphalt temperature, a typical autumn day in Styria.
There were some changes again in the rider field. Ai Ogura (Trackhouse-Aprilia) returned after missing two race weekends in a row due to a broken left thumb.
Joan Mir was missing from the Honda factory team because he was physically weakened last weekend in Misano and had to retire from the race. He is being replaced by test rider Takaaki Nakagami.
At Tech3-KTM, Espargaro stepped in for Maverick Vinales for the fourth time. However, KTM assumes that Vinales will be back in two weeks at the start of the overseas tour in Japan.
In the first run, Martin retired with a technical problem and parked his Aprilia behind the barriers. There was also a small problem with Acosta’s KTM.
Initially, the Spaniard set the first best time with 1:29.851 minutes. Afterwards, he repeatedly applied the front brake hard after turn 1, apparently to release the ride-height system on the rear damper.
After the first run, Acosta had a four-tenths of a second lead over Marc Marquez in second place. Martin was able to continue the training with his second motorcycle.
All 22 riders clearly chose the tires: the soft front tire from Michelin and medium at the rear. In the second run, Espargaro crashed off his KTM in turn 4 (Schlossgold).
Soon after, Marco Bezzecchi made a mistake in the chicane at turn 2. He braked too late directly behind his Aprilia teammate Martin, and to avoid a collision, Bezzecchi went straight through the gravel trap.
Martin improved to second place in his first run with his second RS-GP, three tenths behind Acosta’s best time. At that point, Bezzecchi was six tenths behind the top.
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Five minutes before the end of the session, Alex Marquez (Gresini-Ducati) plowed through the gravel trap at turn 4 but was able to continue. The replay showed that the large air intake on the lower left side of the fairing had come loose beforehand.
Acosta stayed on one set of tires for the entire 45 minutes. In the third run, he still posted strong sector times and almost equaled his personal best. Espargaro followed Acosta on the track and improved to second place.
That was the decision in the first practice, as no better lap times came from the other top riders. With 1:29.851 minutes, Acosta was 0.233 seconds faster than Espargaro, who was riding on new tires at the end.
The first KTM pursuer was Martin in third (+0.308 seconds). Marc Marquez finished the morning session fourth with a 0.355-second deficit. The top 5 was completed by Johann Zarco (LCR-Honda).
Bezzecchi followed in sixth place with half a second behind. Raul Fernandez took seventh place. One of his two Trackhouse-Aprilia bikes was equipped with the aerodynamic update that the factory team has been using since Silverstone.
The top 10 were rounded out by Alex Marquez, Diogo Moreira (LCR-Honda), and Luca Marini (Honda). Thus, three Honda riders were in the top 10. The best Yamaha rider was Jack Miller (Pramac) in 13th.
Yamaha fitted a new Akrapovic exhaust on one of Fabio Quartararo’s motorcycles, although he emphasized a few weeks ago in Aragon that he no longer wants to test developments.
Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) was 1.1 seconds behind the top. He finished 18th. The last place was Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pramac-Yamaha). The three-time Superbike world champion was two and a half seconds behind.
The afternoon session starts at 3 p.m. The ten fastest riders will then qualify directly for Q2.
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