The Repsol Honda Team rider secured a place on the second row of the grid. Teammate Pol Espargaró will take off from eleventh.
Unlike yesterday, today all three sessions were held in dry conditions. Both Repsol Honda Team riders went directly through to Q2.
Marc Márquez was competitive from the opening session of the day. He would go on to qualify fifth, just over half a second off pole position.
Márquez set a best time of 1:23.227, for a spot on the second row of the grid.
Pol Espargaró started the day very positively. He managed to finish FP3 in the top ten and avoided having to go through Q1.
In Q2, a top time of 1:23.738 earned him eleventh for the Austrian Grand Prix.
The MotoGP race will be held tomorrow at 2pm (CEST).
MARC MÁRQUEZ – 5th 1’23.227
“In Free Practice 3 we kept trying things, sometimes when you try big things they help a lot and this is what happened. The target today was to be on the second row, I knew front row was a little too far and we will start fifth finally. It’s a good position to try and avoid problems in the first corner and lose as little time as possible in the first laps. The feeling was a bit better than last weekend but I don’t think we quite have the pace to battle for victory. Tomorrow will be different, today was very warm and I think this helps us. I asked for more from HRC and they have had a good reaction, they’ve brought many new things and we need to try them.”
POL ESPARGARÓ – 11th 1’23.738
“I made a mistake in Qualifying to use the hard front, but this was not the right choice and I think we could have had a better position. For the race, it’s another story and I think we need to consider it for the race. Overall our race pace in FP4 was good, it was not amazing but I think we can have an enjoyable race. It’s much different to last weekend, this weekend I don’t think we’re too bad and we can have an interesting day tomorrow. I’m enjoying riding the bike more.”
