Martin (Aprilia/5th) was full of praise: “Pedro did his own thing today”

Following a somewhat eventful opening session on Friday morning, MotoGP co-leader Jorge Martin enjoyed a promising qualifying session. Even on the medium tyres, Martin was consistently among the fastest. When he switched to ‘soft’ tyres to secure a place in Q2, the Madrid-born rider continued to set a fast pace.

Even the turbulent final stages, including an interruption to the session, failed to rattle Martin. On his final lap, he clocked a time of 1:28.603 minutes and secured 5th place. After Day 1 in Styria, the “Martinator” was a very modest 0.018 seconds slower than Marc Márquez. The field was incredibly close once again, with the gap to benchmark rider Pedro Acosta standing at just 0.222 seconds after an hour.

In the media debrief, however, the focus wasn’t initially on the Spaniard’s pace. How were the aching arms that had cost Martin a podium finish at the San Marino GP a week ago? Martin: “It went surprisingly well. When I was out in FP1 this morning, I had no problems at all and I was 100 per cent sure I could manage without an operation. In the afternoon I felt it a bit, but it was fine, and I think that’s normal because you just get a bit tired.” Whether the issue of ‘arm pump’ is off the table for now, however, will only become clear during the long Grand Prix race.

Martin fuhr in Spielberg wieder schmerzfrei

Foto: Gold and Goose

Looking at the timesheets, the Aprilia rider paid tribute to frontrunner Acosta. “Pedro seemed to be doing his own thing today. He was exceptionally strong and very fast on every lap,” said Martin, commenting on the KTM rider’s performance.

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Martin didn’t forget to mention himself either: “But I felt very strong. We focused on long runs and my pace was consistently good. We’ve also identified where there’s still room for improvement. If we optimise that and iron out the minor issues over the course of a lap, I think we can close the gap to the front. I feel much better than last year in particular – the bike does exactly what I want it to.”

Notably, despite good conditions during the one-hour qualifying session, even KTM hero Pedro Acosta (1:28.381 min) failed to beat the all-time best time at Spielberg. With a time of 1:27.7 mins, Jorge Martin remains the fastest MotoGP rider at the Red Bull Ring.