MotoGP Qualifying at the Red Bull Ring: Riders on the front row separated by 0.071 seconds

In Friday’s qualifying session, Pedro Acosta of the KTM factory team gave the management team at KTM, led by Managing Director Gottfried Neumeister, cause for celebration with his fastest lap time; with a time of 1:28.381, the Spaniard was a good 6/10 of a second off Jorge Martin’s lap record (1:27.748), set in 2024 on a Ducati. The top 10, who went straight through to Q2, were separated by just 0.436 seconds.

Veteran Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) and former champion Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) were the best performers in Qualifying 1 to progress to Q2, whilst three-time Superbike World Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pramac Yamaha) will start from the back of the grid in the 22-rider field for Saturday’s and Sunday’s races.

In Qualifying 2, which also lasted 15 minutes, Aprilia works rider Marco Bezzecchi was the first on Saturday to break the 1:29 mark in fine autumn weather and an air temperature of 18 degrees Celsius, temporarily taking top spot on the timing screens.

Marc and Alex Márquez beat the Italian’s time shortly afterwards, as did Jorge Martín. Then Pedro Acosta dropped a bombshell, setting the fastest lap of the weekend on the KTM RC16 with a time of 1:28.328.

With six minutes remaining, the riders had new rear tyres fitted in the pits and set off in pursuit of final lap times. Then everything happened in quick succession: Martin catapulted himself to the top of the timesheets with a lap of 1:28.223, only to be beaten by Acosta by 0.304 seconds shortly afterwards. The joy at KTM was short-lived, as Martin was back in first place with a time of 1:27.917.

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20.11.2026 - 09:55

Alex Márquez (Gresini Ducati) crashed in the final two minutes, whilst his brother Marc worked his way up to second place.

When the session ended with the chequered flag, Martin topped the timesheets ahead of Marc Marquez and Acosta. Bezzecchi, Ai Ogura (both Aprilia) and Alex Marquez qualified for the second row. Row 3 is made up of Pecco Bagnaia, Fabio Di Giannantonio and the impressive Fabio Quartararo on the Yamaha.