We have been told time and again, the Red Bull Ring is above all a circuit favorable to engine power. The cavalry can go wild there and it is thanks to this particularity that, since the Austrian Grand Prix returned to the MotoGP calendar, a Ducati has never been defeated there. And yet, a rider managed to get into the top 5 at the end of Friday in Styria with a Yamaha with a normally sluggish engine but whose engine still has 500 laps less to take. His name: Fabio Quartararo…
The Red Bull Ring does not promise to be fun for fabio quartararo regarding the material Yamaha limited available to him. And yet, the Frenchman, once again, held his own against more experienced and better equipped opponents. The Petronas driver only returned 0.237 seconds to the leader Marc Márquez to the vitaminized Honda. And the Frenchman only lost 0.171 seconds to the best Yamaha rider, the official Maverick Vinales, who finished second.
We will recall in passing that Fabio is riding the Austrian track for the first time with a MotoGP… “ My only problem is the first two areas where we have to work a lot " said Quarterly. " This concerns my braking points, braking stability and the way the bike turns. I tried to accelerate as precisely as possible, but it's not there yet. My goal was to get into the top 10, now we are in the top 5 so it's better than expected ».
He adds : " the track has a lot of grip, the asphalt was hot this afternoon, but at over 50 degrees Celsius the conditions are difficult. We always have problems when there is little grip. But it worked here, even though it was very hot ».
His engine takes 500 rpm less than that of his teammate Franco Morbidelli, the protégé of Red, who receives the same configuration as the drivers working in the factory team. “ Unfortunately I don't get that extra 500 rpm », declared the tricolor. “ Although there are some straight lines in Spielberg, I have to deal with this situation ».
He ends on the subject of the new carbon fork Öhlins : " the fork is lighter, in Brno I could feel it, because there are many direction changes. In Spielberg I can barely judge it, I only drove there twice for 40 minutes. Maybe I can describe the benefits better after the weekend ».
MotoGP Spielberg, FP1 and FP2 combined times:
1. Marc Márquez, Honda, 1:23,916 min
2. Maverick Vinales, Yamaha, + 0.066 sec
3. Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati, + 0.117 sec
4. Takaaki Nakagami, Honda, +0.155
5. Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha, +0.237
6 Jack Miller, Ducati, +0.392
7. Miguel Oliveira, KTM, +0.410
8. Danilo Petrucci, Ducati, +0.414
9. Cal Crutchlow, Honda, +0.420
10. Pol Espargaro, KTM, +0,502
11. Valentino Rossi, Yamaha, +0.553
12. Alex Rins, Suzuki, + 0.624
13. Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati, +0.682
14. Franco Morbidelli, Yamaha, +0.714
15. Johann Zarco, KTM, +0.754
16. Stefan Bradl, Honda, +0.839
17. Aleix Espargaro, Aprilia, +0.949
18. Andrea Iannone, Aprilia, + 1.087
19. Karel Abraham, Ducati, + 1.233
20. Tito Rabat, Ducati, +1.317
21. Hafizh Syahrin, KTM, +1.353
