Austrian GP Gets Underway For Repsol Honda At Cold Red Bull Ring

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by Press Release

It was a busy first day at the Austrian GP for Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa, as they rode the RC213V at the Red Bull Ring for the first time, in ambient temperatures that only reached a chilly 15° C and a track temperature of 18° C.

Marc was sixth fastest this morning, while Dani struggled to find a good pace in the even cooler temperatures and suffered a turn 9 crash from which he thankfully escaped uninjured. This afternoon the Repsol Honda pair focused their work on the setup, choosing to ride the whole session without changing their Michelin tyres, a soft-front, hard-rear combination for Marc and a soft-soft pairing for Dani.

Tomorrow will see the second day of action at the Red Bull Ring, with weather forecasts showing much higher temperatures, and both Marc and Dani are confident they’ll improve their pace and speed as they get completely familiar with the new track.

Marc Marquez

10TH 1’25.039

It has basically been a day to gather data for the race and to find the reference points with a MotoGP bike for this track, which is new. It’s short but it has many braking points, and we haven’t ridden here with carbon brakes before. All in all, I’m generally happy with how it went today; we’re tenth but it’s not our real position, as we didn’t use a new and softer rear spec tyre. We’ll continue working in the same direction tomorrow, as I think it’s the right one, with the aim to be at least in the top five and to fight for the podium on Sunday.

Dani Pedrosa

19TH 1’26.130

It has been a demanding day with such low temperatures. I particularly struggled this morning and I had quite a fast crash, losing time and honestly also some confidence. Things went a bit better this afternoon, with a little warmer temperature, even if it was still difficult to put heat in the tyres. The fact that we didn’t know the track so well didn’t help either, but we’ll continue working and we look to improve tomorrow.”

Results Session

Pos.RiderNumNationTeamTime/Gap
1DOVIZIOSO Andrea4ITADucati Team1’23.617
2IANNONE Andrea29ITADucati Team0.238
3VINALES Maverick25SPATeam Suzuki Ecstar0.854
4ROSSI Valentino46ITAMovistar Yamaha MotoGP0.866
5CRUTCHLOW Cal35GBRLCR Honda1.071
6PETRUCCI Danilo9ITAOcto Pramac Racing1.249
7BARBERA Hector8SPAAvintia Racing1.339
8LORENZO Jorge99SPAMovistar Yamaha MotoGP1.371
9PIRRO Michele51ITADucati Team1.371
10MARQUEZ Marc93SPARepsol Honda Team1.422
11HERNANDEZ Yonny68COLAspar MotoGP Team1.425
12REDDING Scott45GBROcto Pramac Racing1.523
13ESPARGARO Pol44SPAMonster Yamaha Tech 31.604
14MILLER Jack43AUSEstrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS1.704
15RABAT Tito53SPAEstrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS2.153
16BAUTISTA Alvaro19SPAAprilia Racing Team Gresini2.265
17SMITH Bradley38GBRMonster Yamaha Tech 32.324
18ESPARGARO Aleix41SPATeam Suzuki Ecstar2.328
19PEDROSA Dani26SPARepsol Honda Team2.513
20BRADL Stefan6GERAprilia Racing Team Gresini2.532
21LAVERTY Eugene50IREAspar MotoGP Team2.852
22BAZ Loris76FRAAvintia Racing2.874
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