All Orange: KTM riders Acosta and Espargaro fastest in Spielberg FP1

The opening session of the Austrian Grand Prix on Thursday took place in consistently wet conditions. The Moped GP, now established as a cult event – featuring a number of MotoGP heroes, with a SPEEDWEEK.com editor tagging along in their slipstream – also went ahead on a wet track, but in high spirits and with the two-stroke flag flying.

On Friday morning, too, the Red Bull Ring was grey and overcast – yet the tarmac surface of the high-speed circuit was dry. The Moto3 and Moto2 sessions also took place without the need for wet-weather tyres. However, with an air temperature of just 13 degrees and a track temperature of 15 degrees, the challenge was to bring the sensitive slicks up to operating temperature. The Moto2 riders had previously confirmed these tricky conditions with a number of crashes.

Unlike a week earlier in Italy, 22 riders took to the track once more – Ai Ogura is back on the Trackhouse Aprilia in Austria, whilst Pol Espargaro and Taka Nakagami are standing in for their injured teammates at KTM (Vinales) and Honda (Mir).

The session was barely ten minutes old when Jorge Martin had to park his Aprilia RS-GP at the side of the track due to a technical fault. Much to the delight of the KTM community, Pedro Acosta had taken the lead at the same time with the first lap under the 1:30 mark. Acosta was thus half a second faster than Johann Zarco (Honda) and the Marquez brothers – Marc ahead of Alex – right from the start. Marco Bezzecchi slotted into fifth place after the first run.

At the back of the field were the Yamaha riders Rins and Razgatlioglu, as well as returnee Ai Ogura, who had been forced to miss the last two MotoGP events with a broken thumb.

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After a quarter of an hour, Jorge Martin, who shares the lead in the World Championship standings with Marc Márquez, was back on track. Whilst Marc Márquez was already in second place – though still 0.4 seconds behind Acosta – the ‘Martinator’ initially sat in fourth place before moving up to second two laps later. Martín’s time: 1:30.159 mins.

As the session entered the second half of FP1, the skies cleared and conditions improved. Nevertheless, the yellow flags were waved for KTM rider Pol Espargaro. The stand-in for Viñales had braked too late before Turn 4 and then crashed into the gravel. Marco Bezzecchi also missed his braking point once, skidded through the gravel at Turn 2, but managed to stay on his bike.

In the final stages, the riders took advantage of the improved conditions; several riders stepped up their pace and the field closed the gap. From the front, Acosta tried to improve his time further, but missed out by a few hundredths on his first attempt. Curiously, Gresini rider Alex Márquez had part of his side fairing come loose on the fast approach to Schlossgold Corner (4). With the fairing dragging, he went straight into the gravel.

Then Acosta stepped it up, riding slightly faster and, even better, overtaking Pol Espargaro to take second place! This brought the session to a brilliant close from the Austrians’ perspective. Binder and Bastianini finished 14th and 17th respectively on the other KTM bikes. World Championship rivals Jorge Martín and Marc Márquez finished FP1 in 3rd and 4th places, ahead of Zarco and the second Aprilia factory rider, Marco Bezzecchi.

Fabio Quartararo was once again the best Yamaha rider in Austria. The rider set to join Honda next year finished FP1 in 15th place, 0.921 seconds off the pace. Lagging far behind: Superbike World Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu. The Pramac rookie finished last, 2.5 seconds off the pace.