Marco Bezzecchi shattered the Red Bull Ring MotoGP lap record to lead P2 and head the field into Saturday, the Italian ending up just 0.044s clear of Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales.
With rain potentially on the way in the latter stages of the 60-minute test, the riders headed out early to try and secure positions within Q2 – with Vinales immediately lapping underneath Johann Zarco’s FP1 leading effort on a 1:29.618s – though first Brad Binder and then Bezzecchi shaded the Spaniard on the timesheets.
Vinales would get the last laugh though as he banged in a 1:29.075s just prior to mid-distance, the bulk of the field then electing to complete some race simulations.
Play looked to have been brought to a premature end as the rain arrived shortly after, though the precipitation would ultimately prove to be light and brief as the track soon returned to its previous grip level – facilitating a last-gasp time attack as the end of the session drew ever nearer.
Francesco Bagnaia was the first to dip below the 1:29s bracket courtesy of a 1:28.821s, though it would be countryman and VR46 Ducati rider Bezzecchi who would claim the ultimate Friday prize thanks to a blistering 1:28.533s – beating the previous two-wheeled record of the current Red Bull Ring layout set by Enea Bastianini en-route to last year’s pole position.
His impressive tour ultimately proved unbeatable for his adversaries, with Vinales getting closest to toppling Bezzecchi by lapping just 0.044s away to end the day second fastest, with Bagnaia’s earlier lap leaving him third overall.
Binder ended up fourth quickest on the opening day of KTM’s home event just ahead of Zarco, with the Frenchman’s Pramac Ducati team-mate Jorge Martin shadowing him in sixth.
Aleix Espargaro just managed to sneak a late improvement in to go seventh before a final yellow flag – caused by Bezzecchi crashing – dashed any other last-gasp progression, with Alex Marquez grabbing eighth for Gresini Ducati.
Fabio Quartararo ended up as the sole Yamaha guaranteed to make it into Q2 in ninth overall, while Miguel Oliveira claimed the final automatic pole shootout passage by just 0.026s over VR46’s Luca Marini.
Marc Marquez looked set to secure a top ten spot for a while following a heroically aggressive lap that netted him second overall at the time, the Honda rider eventually shuffled back to 13th just ahead of KTM’s Jack Miller.
Pol Espargaro enjoyed a solid day for GasGas in only his second event back from injury to end Friday 15th overall and within a second of Bezzecchi’s benchmark, though he looks likely to get some form of penalty after holding up Marc on one of his fast laps while touring.
Bastianini continued his struggles with getting to grips with the 2023-specification Ducati Desmosedici as he languished down in 16th by close of play, the factory Ducati pilot also suffering a crash at Turn 2 as he endeavoured to find more time – the four-time premier class race winner lapping a full seven-tenths-of-a-second slower than his best time of last season at the venue.
Takaaki Nakagami fell all the way to 18th having looked solidly within the top ten for most of the day, the LCR ace slotting in just behind the other Yamaha of Morbidelli and ahead of RNF Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez.
