Relentless Marquez controls Friday in Austria
A productive first day at the Red Bull Ring for the Repsol Honda Team saw Marc Marquez lead the way with Bradl less than a second behind.
After just a few days rest from the double point-scoring finish at the Czech GP, the Repsol Honda Team were back to work at Round 11 of the MotoGP World Championship. Both Marc Marquez and Stefan Bradl eagerly returned to track, looking to build on what they achieved respectively in Brno.
Marquez started the Austrian GP with devilish consistency, using just a single set of tyres during Free Practice 1 and sitting at the top of the time sheets until the final moments when other riders fitted new tyres. A relentless start to Free Practice 2 saw Marquez set multiple 1’23s in a row with fresh rubber on his Repsol Honda Team RC213V. The MotoGP World Championship leader finished the day fastest by 0.066s with a 1’23.916, 0.8s from the outright lap record.
Having not ridden at the Red Bull Ring since 2016, Stefan Bradl was able to quickly get up to speed as he continues to deputise the injured Jorge Lorenzo. Bradl diligently worked through his weekend schedule and improved his best lap time by almost a second as he pushed for a Q2 spot. 0.839s away from his day-leading teammate, the German rider missed a spot in the top ten by a little over 0.3s and is ready to battle for a top ten spot tomorrow.
Takaaki Nakagami had a notable performance on the LCR Honda and finished Friday in fourth overall.
Bradl and the rest of the MotoGP grid will fight it out for a top ten spot and direct passage to Q2 during Free Practice 3 tomorrow, Friday August 09, at 09:55 local time.
Marc Marquez
“Today like every Friday we worked a lot towards Sunday, focusing on race distance and understanding how the tyres and the setup will behave. Like in Brno and in the Sachsenring we were also working with two different frames – both were good. At a first look we are far ahead, but Dovizioso also has strong pace and Viñales and Quartararo are also quite close to us. We need to understand how the grip will change tomorrow and see what happens.”
Stefan Bradl
“We had a busy day today, we had a lot of things to try. An intense day with all that we had to do but I am satisfied with the lap time. Obviously our position is not ideal but the gap to the guy in front is very small. On one side I’m happy and on another I could be happier but tomorrow we will be able to focus more on the race and improve our setup to go faster. Let’s hope the weather is OK and we will see what we can do!”
Austrian GP Combined Free Practice Classification
| Pos. | Rider | Num | Nation | Team | Constructor | Time/Gap |
|---|
Location Information
The Red Bull Ring in Spielberg is located beautifully in the Murtal-region of Styria, Austria. The circuit was originally built in 1969, then known as the Österreichring. In 1996 it was rebuilt with the track-layout it still had when, in 2011, it was reopened as the Red Bull Ring and… read more.
| Length | 4.3 km / 2.68 miles |
| Width | 13 metres |
| Left corners | 3 |
| Right corners | 7 |
| Longest straight | 626 m / 2053.81 ft |
| Constructed | 1969 |
| Modified | 1996 |
Red Bull Ring, Spielberg, Steiermark, Austria - View in Google Maps
Records
| Pole Position | 1m28.539s (176.7 Km/h) Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati, 2023) |
| Race Lap | 1m29.840s (174.2 Km/h) Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati, 2023) |
| Race Time | 42'14.886 (172.8 Km/h) Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati, 2022) |
| 2023 Race Winner | Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) |
| 2023 Sprint Winner | Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) |
