Relentless Marquez controls Friday in Austria

Marquez is focused on finally beating Ducati at the Red Bull Ring

A productive first day at the Red Bull Ring for the Repsol Honda Team saw Marc Marquez lead the way with Bradl less than a second behind.

After just a few days rest from the double point-scoring finish at the Czech GP, the Repsol Honda Team were back to work at Round 11 of the MotoGP World Championship. Both Marc Marquez and Stefan Bradl eagerly returned to track, looking to build on what they achieved respectively in Brno.

Marquez started the Austrian GP with devilish consistency, using just a single set of tires during Free Practice 1 and sitting at the top of the time sheets until the final moments when other riders fitted new tires. A relentless start to Free Practice 2 saw Marquez set multiple 1’23s in a row with fresh rubber on his Repsol Honda Team RC213V. The MotoGP World Championship leader finished the day fastest by 0.066s with a 1’23.916, 0.8s from the outright lap record.

Marc Marquez 93 1ST 1'23.916

“Today like every Friday we worked a lot towards Sunday, focusing on race distance and understanding how the tires and the setup will behave. Like in Brno and in the Sachsenring we were also working with two different frames – both were good. At a first look we are far ahead, but Dovizioso also has strong pace and Vinales and Quartararo are also quite close to us. We need to understand how the grip will change tomorrow and see what happens."

Friday Results