In the top 3 of the day, the LCR Honda driver continues his progression and hopes to qualify at the front tomorrow.
The hierarchy seems to have been reversed this weekend, at the Red Bull Ring, with greater domination of the Ducatis and KTMs against the Yamahas in difficulty. The Suzukis continue to be well placed, and the Hondas remain, still very far away with Cal Crutchlow, Álex Márquez and Stefan Bradl in 14th, 19th and 21st places. Fortunately, the Japanese manufacturer can count on its compatriot in the person of Takaaki Nakagami, very fit during FP1 and since the start of the season in general.
In the absence of Marc Márquez, the LCR Honda driver takes the lead in the clan with an eighth place in the championship. Having come very close to his first podium in the premier category at Jerez 2, Nakagami is not giving up and proved it again today by placing third during the first free practice session.
FP2 having been compromised almost entirely due to the rain, the ranking remained as is and the Japanese could therefore have automatically qualified for Q2 if it were to rain again tomorrow. Despite this good first day, everything remains to be done with this uncertain weather and we must not give up until the checkered flag on Sunday.
“I'm pretty happy with today because my feeling with the bike was really good, and we improved our lap time with each run”, he explained. “This is very important for this weekend because the weather forecast is constantly changing and we need to prepare for all conditions. We seem to have found some good settings in the dry, but you never know in the wet. »
“Third place today is not bad, I am happy and now we will prepare for tomorrow. We are ready to fight for a good place. »
MotoGP Red Bull Ring 1 J1: times
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
