Moto3 Austria 2 FP3: Tony Arbolino could have broken his own circuit record, but Garcia was there!

At the end of the first day of this Styrian Grand Prix, no one will have been able to take first place from Celestino Vietti in the afternoon, who remains in the ascendant after FP2.

During FP2 yesterday afternoon, with temperatures rising in the Styrian hills, the drivers failed to beat the very fast reference time of Celestino Vietti (KTM, Sky Racing Team VR46), established during the morning session. In the end it is Tatsuki suzuki (Honda, SIC58 Squadra Corse) who comes out of nowhere to dominate the FP2 times, the Japanese driver being a hundredth of a second faster than gabriel rodrigo (Honda, Kömmerling Gresini Moto3). Tony Arbolino (Honda, Rivacold Snipers Team) was once again at the top of the standings and also with a tenth lead. John McPhee (Honda, Petronas Sprinta Racing) progressed to fourth position. Albert Arenas (KTM, Aspar Team Gaviota) remained in fifth place, although he was only a tenth of a second slower than the leader, and with Jaume Masia (Honda, Leopard Racing) on ​​his heels.

The leader of FP1, Celestine Vietti (KTM, Sky Racing Team VR46), briefly saw his name at the top of the timesheets during the second practice session and despite dropping to seventh place during the final run, the young Italian remains the fastest man fast of the day. Filip Salac (Honda, Rivacold Snipers Team) found the speed to climb to eighth place, Ayumu Sasaki (KTM, Red Bull KTM Tech3) and Jeremy Alcove (Honda, Kömmerling Gresini Moto3) completing the top ten.

Three tenths from the head, Andrea Migno (KTM, Sky Racing Team VR46) narrowly missed the top 10 of FP2 but is still outside the precious top 14 of the combined classification, which allows direct qualification to Q2. Raul Fernandez (KTM, Red Bull KTM Ajo) led a large part of the session before finding himself in 12th place, while Deniz Öncü (KTM, Red Bull KTM Tech3) and Darryn Binder (KTM, CIP-Green Power) ran out of steam after their strong performance in FP1 to fall to the bottom of the top 20, around eight tenths from first place.

What will be the verdict of this third and final free session of the WE, which will define the direct qualifiers for Q2 and those who will have to go through Q1? Before answering this question, here is a summary of the facts known so far…

Moto3™ Red Bull Ring 2	16/08/20	23/08/20
FP1	1'36.550 Tony Arbolino	1'35.997 Celestino Vietti
FP2	1'37.060 Johan McPhee	1'36.398 Tatsuki Suzuki
FP3	1'42.775 Celestino Vietti	1'36.055 Sergio Garcia
Q1	1'37.032 Ricardo Rossi
Q2	1'36.277 Raúl Fernández
Warm-up	1'36.483 Celestino Vietti
Course	Arenas, Masia, McPhee
All time lap record	1'35.778 Tony Arbolino 2019

 

On this Saturday morning, the track conditions were ideal: the circuit was lit by beautiful sunshine, the air temperature was 23°C and the track temperature was 31°C. Rain is expected for the rest of the weekend, probably from this afternoon. There is even talk of a storm from 14 p.m.…

The objective of the third session this morning is to climb among the 14 fastest in free practice to go directly to Q2.

Albert Arenas (KTM, Aspar Team Gaviota) is one of the first riders to take to the track. Author of four podiums in five races, the native of Girona seems unstoppable since the start of the season. He is second in the cumulative standings of the WE, before FP3, and seems well on his way to increasing his lead in the Championship this WE.

The start of the session is rather calm, with no other falls or notable events. We expect more activity on track during the last 10 minutes, with the hunt for time generally reserved for the end of the session. For the moment, the pilots are getting their bearings.

After 10 minutes on the track, Ai Ogura (Honda, Honda Team Asia) is the first to achieve an interesting lap, which places him second in the session, just behind Raúl Fernández (KTM, Red Bull KTM Ajo), Celestino Vietti (KTM, Sky Racing Team VR46) completing the top 3.

Tatsuki suzuki (Honda, SIC58 Squadra Corse) was also in great form before his time was canceled for exceeding the track limits.

We will recall that last weekend, the last three laps of the race had been relatively spectacular, the drivers taking advantage of each turn to overtake themselves, but inventing new relatively wide trajectories. This was not to the taste of the commissioners, who downgraded some of them. It's a safe bet that the final laps of the race will be closely observed this weekend to enforce the track limits.

Meanwhile, Raul Fernandez (KTM, Red Bull KTM Ajo) continues the fast laps. He managed to climb into first place in this FP3 in 1'36.393, 15 minutes from the end of the session. Will he manage to obtain his third consecutive pole position? With the weather uncertain, qualifying will be exciting!

In the Sky Racing Team VR46 team, we find Celestine Vietti, who achieved his best time yesterday morning, which is currently the fastest of the weekend, and Andrea Migno, who gives everything to qualify directly among the 14 best.

Until then, the session was calm. The last 5 minutes promise to be more hectic. As usual, the drivers are waiting to take the best slipstream, and grab the few thousandths of a second they need to move up in the relatively tight ranking. They therefore have one final timed lap left to make it happen.

Ryusei Yamanaka (Honda, Estrella Galicia 0,0) falls in this last lap at turn 1, in the way ofEnea Bastianini during the Moto2 race last week, fortunately without consequences. Watch out for the yellow flag though!

The superb time of Tony Arbolino (Honda, Rivacold Snipers Team), which achieves a 1.35.767 and thus beats its own circuit record, set in 2019, places it in first position this weekend.

However, the Snipers driver was stripped of this feat shortly after the session ended, when his time was canceled and Sergio Garcia (Honda, Estrella Galicia 0,0) made the headlines on the timesheets. This is becoming a habit in Moto3…

In the cumulative ranking, we therefore find Celestino Vietti (KTM, Sky Racing Team VR46), followed by Sergio Garcia (Honda, Estrella Galicia 0,0) and Raul Fernandez (KTM, Red Bull KTM Ajo)

FP3 ranking of the Styrian Moto3 Grand Prix, updated following the downgrading of Tony Arbolino: 

 

Classification credit: MotoGP.com