The best time of the day in MotoGP and with it a new “lap record” was achieved on Friday by Frenchman Johann Zarco in 1:29.837 minutes. With seven bikes in the top eight, Ducati dominated the first day of practice Spielberg completely. The premier class race starts on Sunday at 2 p.m. (live ServusTV).
The Red Bull Ring was also hit by the severe storms in Styria on Thursday. There was also a longer power outage on the system and the press conference of series world champion Marc Marquez had to be interrupted. All in all, the route miraculously survived the storm largely unscathed, although trees and power poles had been buckled all around and some campers were also affected.
On Friday morning, Moto3 first tried out the new chicane, which had been set up because of some serious accidents, on a still wet track. It makes the route for the motorcycles 30 meters longer compared to the Formula 1 layout. The lap times are of course much slower now. In MotoGP, for example, Jorge Martin’s old course record was 1:22.643 minutes and an average speed of 188.0 km/h.
Things really got down to business in the afternoon in the second free practice session, which proved one thing above all. Despite the chicane and all the prophecies of doom, the Italian motorcycles give in Spielberg keep the sound on. Above all Ducati. On the combined timesheets, World Champion Fabio Quartararo was the only non-Ducati rider in the top eight, behind Zarco, Jack Miller and Jorge Martin on his Yamaha in fourth.
Ninth was Maverick Vinales on Aprilia, another bike from Italy. Brad Binder was the best KTM rider in tenth place. His teammate Miguel Oliveira crashed like last year and was only 22nd. Ducati has six of the eight Spielberg-Winning races since 2016, KTM the remaining two.
“The day was disappointing,” said 2020 winner Oliveira, who had previously been offered another spot by KTM on the 2023 GasGas second factory team. Even company boss Stefan Pierer and board member Hubert Trunkenpolz made an effort in Spielbergto keep the Portuguese “in the family”. “I told them I don’t have an answer right now,” Oliveira reported. “I’ll have to think about it after the race.”
In the run-up to the chicane, now known as curves 2A and 2B, the drivers had made quite positive comments. “It suits my driving style,” said Maverick Vinales. Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia, who has won four of the last seven MotoGP races and is third behind Quartararo and Aleix Espargaro, lacks the challenge a little. “Less fun, but more safety,” he said with a wink.
The new left-right-left variant now slows the bikes down to 80 km/h before continuing up to turn 3. This used to be approached directly and braked at almost 320 km/h. Now it’s only around 240 km/h.
The fastest riders in the subclasses were Somkiat Chantra (Moto2) from Thailand and Dennis Foggia (Moto3) from Italy. Another morning training session follows on Saturday. In the afternoon, the qualifying sessions are on the program, while the MotoE and the Rookies Cup are already completing their first of two races. All training sessions and races can be seen live on ServusTV.
Source: Nachrichten
