Marc Marquez (Ducati/4th): “It’s not the first time KTM have been very fast”

28 races have been held in the 2026 MotoGP World Championship, with Marc Marquez (Ducati) and Jorge Martin (Aprilia) leading the overall standings on 273 points. The Red Bull Ring in Styria has always been a good venue for Ducati; ten of the twelve Grands Prix held there to date have been won by the Borgo Panigale-based manufacturer.

However, there was no sign of Ducati’s dominance in Friday afternoon’s qualifying session, as KTM’s star rider Pedro Acosta set the fastest time of 1:28.381 min, which was a good 6/10 sec slower than Jorge Martin’s lap record (1:27.748 mins, set in 2024 on a Ducati). The fastest Ducati rider was youngster Fermin Aldeguer from the Gresini team in second place, whilst Marc Marquez finished fourth, 0.204 seconds behind.

“The most important thing is that we were able to improve our feel for the bike from the first run to the last,” Marquez noted. “On Saturday we need to take another step forward; at the moment we’re not ready to fight for the win. It’s not the first time KTM have been very quick here. And Pedro gives them that extra edge – he’s already been very good on other tracks too. I need to find a way to perform better on new tyres. That’s the only way I’ll make it onto the front row in qualifying. I know where I’m losing out; perhaps I can adapt my riding style a bit better to these tyres on Saturday.”

Given the strength of Acosta and KTM in Austria, Marc Márquez emphasised that the World Championship is far from over. The leading duo, on 273 points, are followed by Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia, 241), Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ducati, 223), Pedro Acosta (KTM, 209), Ai Ogura (Aprilia, 203) and Raul Fernandez (Aprilia, 199). “Pedro is in the title race,” the world champion noted. “There are still eight race weekends to go and he’s 64 points behind. I was 102 points behind with seven events to go.”

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19.09.2026 - 08:35