Alex Marquez recovers from an early fall to earn his best grid position to date as Bradl prepares to fight forward.
It was a case of déjà vu as the #motogp grid rolled out of pit lane on Saturday for the second time in as many weeks in Austria. Despite threatening clouds in the afternoon, it was another day of almost perfect conditions at the Red Bull Ring.
After a confidence building Friday, #alexmarquez was the victim of a fast fall at Turn 9 after a couple of minutes of running in Free Practice 3. Fortunately, he was unharmed and immediately back on his feet and returned to the garage. With only half a second between the top 15 riders, Alex narrowly missed a spot in Q2. New tyres have been a big area of focus in recent rounds for the #motogp rookie and his side of the Repsol Honda Team garage, the hard work beginning to pay off as Alex secured his best grid position to date, a 1’24.370 earning him 17th on the grid but promoted to 16th due to Zarco’s penalty.
It was another busy day on track for #stefanbradl, the German continuing to perform important work for HRC aboard the Honda RC213V. Improvements continued for Bradl who was able to lap consistently during both FP3 and FP4, building a solid race pace. In his first time running at the same circuit on two consecutive weekends, Bradl found two tenths on his previous qualifying time and will line up 20th for Sunday’s race.
Free Practice 3 was topped by Takaaki Nakagami, the LCR Honda Team rider at home around the 4.3-kilometre-long Red Bull Ring. His speed was converted to a debut front row in the premier class for the Japanese rider. Nakagami is aiming for his first podium in #motogp after a strong run of recent form.
The Grand Prix of #styria is scheduled to run over 28 laps and will commence at 14:00.
Alex Marquez
16th - 1'24.370
"In the morning I had a small crash, it was high speed but not really big. The plan was to try a slightly different setting on the second bike but the feeling wasn't really what I was expecting and because the other bike was damaged I couldn't improve my lap time in FP3. It's a shame because on Friday we were feeling better about our one lap speed. Then in Free Practice 4 I spent most of it trying to regain my feeling on the bike. For Q1 I improved a bit, but still couldn't find that same speed. We have Warm Up still to work on it and recover this feeling to push in the strong areas of the bike, like corner entry."
Stefan Bradl
20th - 1'24.667
“We have changed the bike a lot compared to last weekend and we also wanted to know what direction we had to follow. Fortunately, our pace is looking better than our grid position so I’m hoping to gain some positions tomorrow. But for sure we have a lot of work to do, it’s important to keep working and give our maximum in the race.”
Styrian GP Qualifying Classification
MotoGP 2020 Saturday, August 22nd 2020 - Qualifying Round 6 Motorrad Grand Prix von Styria
Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Constructor Time/Gap
1 | ESPARGARO Pol | 44 | SPA | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | KTM | 1'23.580 |
2 | NAKAGAMI Takaaki | 30 | JPN | LCR Honda | Honda | 0.022 |
3 | ZARCO Johann | 5 | FRA | Esponsorama Racing | Ducati | 0.052 Pit Lane Start |
4 | MIR Joan | 36 | SPA | Team Suzuki Ecstar | Suzuki | 0.098 |
5 | MILLER Jack | 43 | AUS | Pramac Racing | Ducati | 0.120 |
6 | VINALES Maverick | 12 | SPA | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 0.198 |
7 | RINS Alex | 42 | SPA | Team Suzuki Ecstar | Suzuki | 0.202 |
8 | OLIVEIRA Miguel | 88 | POR | Red Bull KTM Tech 3 | KTM | 0.217 |
9 | DOVIZIOSO Andrea | 4 | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 0.269 |
10 | QUARTARARO Fabio | 20 | FRA | Petronas Yamaha SRT | Yamaha | 0.286 |
11 | MORBIDELLI Franco | 21 | ITA | Petronas Yamaha SRT | Yamaha | 0.441 |
12 | PETRUCCI Danilo | 9 | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 0.594 |
13 | LECOUNA Iker | 27 | SPA | Red Bull KTM Tech 3 | KTM | 1'23.928 Q1 |
14 | BINDER Brad | 33 | RSA | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | KTM | 0.323 |
15 | ROSSI Valentino | 46 | ITA | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 0.518 |
16 | PIRRO Michele | 51 | ITA | Pramac Racing | Ducati | 0.664 |
17 | MARQUEZ Alex | 73 | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 0.761 |
18 | CRUTCHLOW Cal | 35 | GBR | LCR Honda | Honda | 0.792 |
19 | SMITH Bradley | 38 | GBR | Aprilia #racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 0.807 |
20 | ESPARGARO Aleix | 41 | SPA | Aprilia #racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 0.820 |
21 | BRADL Stefan | 6 | GER | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 1.058 |
22 | RABAT Tito | 53 | SPA | Esponsorama Racing | Ducati | 1.307 |
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