Bezzecchi (Aprilia) after finishing 9th: “No need to panic, it’s only Friday”

One hundredth of a second – that was how much slower Honda rider Luca Marini was than Aprilia works rider Marco. Whilst Marini found himself in eleventh place heading into Q1, Bezzecchi secured his place in the second qualifying session in ninth. After the one-hour qualifying session, Bezzecchi described the situation with relief: “The aim was to get into Q2 – we managed that, so I’m very satisfied. But it wasn’t an easy ride.”

Marco Bezzecchi continued: “We did a good job throughout the day, but in qualifying, when we had to push hard, I made a few mistakes. Even after the red flag. I wanted to go out again on the same tyres, but I couldn’t capitalise on the opportunity and then it got really tight. But thanks to my team, it still worked out; they did a brilliant job in that situation and I was able to go out again.”

After that, Bezzecchi had two laps left, down to the second – which were enough to improve his final time to 1:28.811 mins. Compared with his recent results – and those at Spielberg – this was a sobering read: in 2025, Bezzecchi secured pole position on the RS-GP, and a week ago the rider from Rimini also set the fastest single-lap times.

Als Neunter verlor Bezzecchi 0,430 sec auf die Bestzeit

Foto: Gold and Goose

‘Bez’ replied calmly: ‘Don’t panic – it’s only Friday. We’re used to working our way through the weekend. We’ve got time – we’ll sit down this evening and discuss the next steps. And – as we can see, the times are very close. With the exception of Pedro, who was in a league of his own today, we’re all bunched up together.”

Topic of the week

Spanish Grand Prix at the new Madring: track – hit or miss?

The people of Madrid had set their sights high for their city’s first Formula 1 World Championship race since 1981. But have the high expectations for the new Madring mixed-circuit track really been met?

Read More

TV Program

Tomorrow

Red Bull Ring: International Livestream

MotoGP World Championship

19.09.2026 - 08:35

Correct. He is two tenths of a second behind third-placed Ai Ogura, his team-mate – 19 MotoGP riders were within 0.9 seconds of each other in the Spielberg qualifying session.

A distinctive feature of the Red Bull Ring

Marco Bezzecchi with his final analysis ahead of Sprint Saturday in Austria: “In terms of the base set-up, the bike feels very similar to last year, including the tyres. The tricky bit is putting the right load on the front tyre – specifically in the central section. That’s a distinctive feature of this track. Braking precisely and keeping the bike stable is a challenge.” Bezzecchi also demonstrated this with a hefty trip into the gravel on the exit of the corner. However, the third-placed rider in the World Championship managed to get through the incident without crashing.