Close fought Austrian GP begins for Repsol Honda Team

The red-hot European Summer continued in Austria as temperatures sat in the mid 30s all day, Luca Marini and Joan Mir battling through to earn 16th and 24th place respectively.

With ambient temperatures at 32°C and the track creeping towards 40°C, the MotoGP World Championship riders had even more to contend with on the opening day of the Austrian GP. Testing new items for the Repsol Honda Team RC213V, both Luca Marini and Joan Mir were straight to work in each of the sessions. Honda’s efforts were boosted by Stefan Bradl’s appearance as a wildcard.

Marini has now settled into his form inside the Repsol Honda Team, consistently able to challenge his teammate and Johann Zarco for the top Honda position. This continued on Friday in Spielberg, the Italian finishing just 0.2s behind Zarco and 16th overall – able to improve by almost a second between the morning and afternoon. The steady progress made by HRC engineers has kept Marini positive and focused on the future as they continue to make gains each weekend.

On the other side of the garage, Joan Mir was immediately able to make his presence known as he ended the morning session in ninth with a 1’30.388. Able to find positives in the new items from the first session, Mir was feeling confident of continuing this speed in the afternoon but found himself restricted by traffic and yellow flags when it came time to do a fast lap. The #36 is remaining upbeat despite being unable to improve his time in the afternoon.

Times are as tight as ever at the Red Bull Ring, just 1.5 seconds dividing the top 20 around the ten corners of the Austrian track. Forecasts call for similar conditions on Saturday, the scene set for another scorching Sprint in Spielberg.