Alex Marquez recovers from an early fall and takes his best starting position yet as Bradl prepares to fight forward.
It was a déjà vu case when the MotoGP grid rolled out of the pit lane for the second time in as many weeks in Austria on Saturday. Despite the threat of clouds in the afternoon, it was another day with almost perfect conditions at the Red Bull Ring.
After a confidence building Friday, Alex Marquez fell victim to a quick fall at Turn 9 after running a few minutes in Free Practice 3. Fortunately, he was uninjured and immediately on his feet and returned to the garage. With only half a second between the top 15 drivers, Alex just missed a place in the second quarter. New tires were a big focus in the final laps for the MotoGP rookie and his squad in the Repsol Honda team’s garage. The hard work began to pay off when Alex secured his best starting position so far and finished 17th on the grid with 1’24.370, but moved up to 16th place due to Zarco’s penalty.
It was another busy day for Stefan Bradl. The German continued to do important work for HRC on board the Honda RC213V. Bradl, who was able to drive constant laps in both the third and fourth RP, continued to improve and built up a solid race pace. When Bradl ran on the same track for the first time on two consecutive weekends, he found two tenths of his previous qualifying time and will be in 20th place for Sunday’s race.
Free practice 3 was crowned by Takaaki Nakagami, the LCR Honda team driver at home around the 4.3 kilometer Red Bull Ring. His speed has been converted into a front row debut in the premier class for the Japanese driver. Nakagami is aiming for his first MotoGP podium after a strong run recently.
The Styrian Grand Prix is to last 28 laps and start at 2:00 p.m.