Practice report

MotoGP Austrian Grand Prix: Acosta tops Practice as KTM chases home win

Acosta's hunt for an elusive first victory got off to a good start in Austria

Pedro Acosta completed a perfect first day at KTM's home race as the factory star led the way in Practice at the Austrian Grand Prix on Friday.

Acosta, who is seeking his first MotoGP win before leaving KTM at the end of the year, will be joined in Q2 on Saturday by joint championship leaders Marc Marquez (Ducati) and Jorge Martin (Aprilia), as well as their nearest challenger Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia).

Having topped the Free Practice 1 session in the morning, Acosta resumed his apparent domination of the day by shooting straight to the top of the timesheets in the afternoon. He remained there as most of the pack worked on setups for the races on the weekend, and went into the more competitive final quarter of an hour with a margin of almost half a second over the field.

First to crack as the competitive action hotted up was Alex Marquez, who lost it on the way out of Turn 1 despite having picked up his Gresini Ducati to vertical. This puzzling accident brought out the red flag, but not before his brother Marc had banked his first serious flying lap and moved up to second place on the timesheets.

But despite a yellow flag putting paid to Acosta's parallel effort just before the stoppage, the KTM man was still sitting pretty with an edge of 0.491s.

Alex Marquez brought out the red flags

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images

The session resumed with just under 12 minutes left on the clock: time enough for two runs. Several big names, including Bezzecchi, Fabio Di Giannantonio, Francesco Bagnaia and Raul Fernandez were out of the critical top 10 at that point. Alex Marquez, now on his spare bike, also had work to do to book a safe passage into Q2.

While Bezzecchi, Di Giannantonio and Alex Marquez were able to produce times good enough for the top 10 during a tense final few minutes, Bagnaia and Fernandez could not even come close.

Up at the front, meanwhile, Acosta ruled the roost all the way to the end. While Fermin Aldeguer was able to close to within just over a tenth of his fellow Murcian, Acosta looked to have plenty in hand. Indeed, he rolled out of his final lap after setting the fastest times of the afternoon in the first three sectors.

Ai Ogura impressed on his return to racing action with third-fastest time aboard the Trackhouse Aprilia, while Marc Marquez will have to face more questions about whether he was showing his true pace after clocking fourth-fastest time. Martin was fifth on the factory Aprilia.

Surprises inside the top 10 included former Spielberg winner Brad Binder on the second factory KTM and Yamaha's Fabio Quartararo, who knocked Honda's Luca Marini out of 10th spot after the chequered flag.

FiP

All Stats

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Speed Trap
1	P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	37	KTM	22	1'28.381		177.105	315
2	F. Aldeguer Gresini Racing	54	Ducati	26	+0.127 1'28.508	0.127	176.851	311
3	A. Ogura Trackhouse Racing Team	79	Aprilia	25	+0.187 1'28.568	0.060	176.732	315
4	M. Marquez Ducati Team	93	Ducati	28	+0.204 1'28.585	0.017	176.698	311
5	J. Martin Aprilia Racing Team	89	Aprilia	30	+0.222 1'28.603	0.018	176.662	314
6	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	26	+0.252 1'28.633	0.030	176.602	314
7	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	25	+0.269 1'28.650	0.017	176.568	315
8	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	24	+0.321 1'28.702	0.052	176.465	315
9	M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team	72	Aprilia	26	+0.430 1'28.811	0.109	176.248	317
10	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	26	+0.436 1'28.817	0.006	176.236	307
11	L. Marini Honda HRC	10	Honda	26	+0.440 1'28.821	0.004	176.228	313
12	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	21	+0.484 1'28.865	0.044	176.141	317
13	D. Moreira Team LCR	11	Honda	26	+0.558 1'28.939	0.074	175.994	314
14	E. Bastianini Tech 3	23	KTM	27	+0.680 1'29.061	0.122	175.753	318
15	P. Espargaro Tech 3	44	KTM	26	+0.710 1'29.091	0.030	175.694	311
16	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	22	+0.720 1'29.101	0.010	175.674	310
17	F. Morbidelli Team VR46	21	Ducati	27	+0.810 1'29.191	0.090	175.497	313
18	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	63	Ducati	26	+0.885 1'29.266	0.075	175.350	313
19	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	27	+0.949 1'29.330	0.064	175.224	311
20	T. Nakagami Honda HRC	30	Honda	28	+1.215 1'29.596	0.266	174.704	315
21	J. Miller Pramac Racing	43	Yamaha	23	+1.568 1'29.949	0.353	174.018	310
22	T. Razgatlioglu Pramac Racing	7	Yamaha	27	+1.601 1'29.982	0.033	173.954	306
View full results