Saturday in Austria made the Repsol Honda Team demand more, as Marc Marquez and Pol Espargaro only managed the third and fifth row after two close qualifying sessions.
Clear conditions on Saturday resulted in lap times at the Red Bull Ring as the MotoGP World Championship first battled for a place in the top ten and later for pole. The Red Bull Ring produced a brilliant Q2 session in which Marc Marquez’s pole lap record fell.
Once again there was no waiting for Marc Marquez, who was able to improve his best time on Friday almost immediately. Through hard work during the entire free practice 3, he secured a place in Q2. Marquez used the track time in FP4 to prepare for qualifying and the race. Progress was made during the second quarter as Marquez worked to improve his personal best, falling below 1: 23.5 on his penultimate lap. After a personal best in the first sector on his last flying lap, the eight-time world champion crashed harmlessly in Turn 3 and was unable to improve his time with his RC213V. Marquez will start from eighth place on the grid for the 28-lap race and is happy with his overall pace.
Unfortunately for Pol Espargaro the morning session did not go according to plan after a quick start and Espargaro missed a top ten placement by just 0.017 seconds. The difficulties continued into Q1 when Espargaro, who would start his 250th Grand Prix this weekend, was unable to fight for the first two places and will be in 15th place for the race on Sunday. With a number of big names like Rins and Binder around him, the stage is set for a recovery ride after Saturday’s troubles.
The predictions point to rain on Sunday as the MotoGP race is scheduled to start at 2:00 p.m. local time. Both drivers of the Repsol Honda Team are ready to give their all for the first of two races here at the Red Bull Ring.