The Repsol Honda Team pairing of Pol Espargaro and Marc Marquez only shared a few tenths during the day’s only dry session at the Styrian Grand Prix.
The opening day of the Styrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring turned out to be a two-part day, when rain pelted the track in the afternoon after a faultless run in the morning. With predictions for the weekend still looking mixed, the Repsol Honda team worked to get the most out of both sessions, regardless of the weather, in preparation for qualifying and the race.
Pol Espargaro has shown good form on the last visits around the 4.3 kilometers of the Red Bull Ring and continued this form on Friday morning. In Free Practice 1 he improved steadily and finished the first session with a best time of 1’24.254 in fifth place. His personal best should remain unchallenged as the rain at the beginning of free practice 2 made the track wet and dry. A 1’33.415 Espargaro’s fastest time of the wet afternoon. With a solid foundation, Espargaro wants to continue to benefit from his Honda on the Austrian racetrack.
After the summer break, Marc Marquez went straight back to work when he was reunited with his Honda RC213V in FP1. Like his teammate from the Repsol Honda Team, Marquez started with a longer run on Friday and worked on adapting to the Red Bull Ring during the opening practice session. A personal best of 1’24.492 left Marquez just 0.221s behind Espargaro on the timesheet and sixth place overall. Even though he was only 0.6 seconds off the top, Marquez admitted that he had hoped for more after the break. Like the rest of the field, Marquez did not improve his time in FP2 and finished the session in tenth.
Takaaki Nakagami’s LCR Honda finished the day fastest with 1’23.805.
Current predictions call for a return to dry run in Free Practice 3 on Saturday morning, one last chance for the drivers to fight for a place in the combined top ten. This important session is scheduled to begin at 9:55 a.m. local time, with qualifying starting later that day at 2:10 p.m.