Repsol Honda Team riders Álex Márquez and Stefan Bradl will start tomorrow’s race from the sixth and seventh rows, respectively.
A shower early in the morning affected part of the MotoGP FP3 session. The Repsol Honda Team riders were otherwise able to work on a dry track for the rest of the day, aiding their progress and adaptation to the Red Bull Ring.
In Q1, both managed to set their best times of the weekend, albeit just missing out on Q2. Álex Márquez set a 1:24.490, which placed him in 18th place on the starting grid.
Behind him, stand-in teammate Stefan Bradl set a time only one tenth slower: 1:24.662, for 19th place.
Álex Márquez
“I’m in a better situation here than in Brno, from the first moment I felt good with the bike and I felt like I could be faster. Our race pace is again looking good, there’s one or two small details we need to confirm for tomorrow. We improved our speed over one lap but I wasn’t able to do anything more with the second new tyre for some reason. We’ll try to make a good start tomorrow and stay in the group. I am close to the other rookies and they are a good target.”
Stefan Bradl
“The weekend has not been easy with the weather; we have had to make the most of the track time because FP2 and FP3 weren’t ideal. I’m still trying to improve my feeling with the bike, but we found something interesting in Qualifying and this gives me some optimism about tomorrow. I think it will help us with the performance in the race and we can fight more in the race. I am actually looking forward to tomorrow, we have learned a lot today and I just hope the weather stays dry.”
