The weather at the Austrian GP at the Red Bull Ring will once more provide an additional factor of excitement. In the warm-up of the MotoGP class, drizzle set in, Fabio Quartararo had previously set the best time.
Sunday morning was dry in Spielberg, but clouds hung threateningly over the Red Bull Ring. Therefore, the MotoGP aces already used the early phase of the warm-up to try out rain tires or practice swapping bikes for a possible flag-to-flag race. Two weeks following the heel injury, the “bike swap” caused pain for Aleix Espargaró, who came second in the World Championships.
After ten minutes, Yamaha star Fabio Quartararo was topping the timesheets with a 1:29.800 0.515 ahead of Aprilia factory rider Maverick Viñales and 0.662 ahead of Suzuki ace Alex Rins.
In memory of: Die Pole-Zeit von Gresini-Ducati-Pilot Enea Bastianini and at the same time the best lap time so far on the new MotoGP layout with the Münzer chicane was 1:28.772 min.
With eight minutes left on the clock, the first drops of rain fell from the sky in the first sector, but this did not pose a problem for the MotoGP riders. There weren’t any big leaps in time, but the Ducati pilots Jorge Martin and Jack Miller were ahead of Rins.
Bavarian Stefan Bradl finished the warm-up for the Austrian GP in 21st place, 1.752 seconds behind.
Lorenzo Savadori brought up the rear with his injured shoulder, but the Aprilia wildcard driver still drew attention. Because he is moving out today with a retro finish on his RS-GP, which is reminiscent of the first of 54 world championship titles for Aprilia: 30 years ago, Alessandro Gramigni brought the 125 crown to Noale.
MotoGP warm-up result, Spielberg (21 August):
1. Quartararo, Yamaha, 1:29,800 min
2. Vinales, Aprilia, +0.515sec
3. Martin, Ducati, +0.546
4. Miller, Ducati, +0.612
5. Rins, Suzuki, + 0,662
6. Marini, Ducati, + 0.666
7. Morbidelli, Yamaha, +0.685
8. Di Giannantonio, Ducati, + 0.705
9. Zarco, Ducati, + 0.771
10. Aleix Espargaró, Aprilia, + 0.824
11. Bagnaia, Ducati, + 0.959
12. Mir, Suzuki, +1,074
13. Bezzecchi, Ducati, +1,158
14. Raúl Fernández, KTM, + 1,194
15. Nakagami, Honda, +1.201
16. Bastianini, Ducati, + 1.243
17. Oliveira, KTM, + 1,261
18. Dovizioso, Yamaha, +1.294
19. Pol Espargaro, Honda, +1,310
20. Alex Marquez, Honda, +1,320
21. Brad Binder, KTM, + 1,359
22. Bradl, Honda, +1.752
23. Gardner, KTM, + 2,225
24. Darryn Binder, Yamaha, + 2,538
25. Savadori, Aprilia, + 3,135
