Aprilia find the lap that mattered
Jorge Martin had not led a single session at the Red Bull Ring this weekend. Then qualifying came round and he put the Aprilia on pole.
A 1:27.917 did it, a few hours ago, in the closing minutes of Q2. Marc Marquez answered and fell 0.015s short. Pedro Acosta got his KTM into the 1:27s too, 0.071s off the pole time. The whole front row for this afternoon’s sprint fits inside seven hundredths of a second.
That margin carries weight right now. Martin and Marquez arrived in Austria level on points, with Marquez officially in front on countback thanks to five grand prix wins this season against Martin’s one. This is round 15 of 22 and neither man has managed to shake the other off.
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A wet morning, then a crash for the leader
Overnight rain left the circuit patchy and most of the field sat in the garage when final practice opened. The sun came out, the track dried, and Marquez went quickest in the last few minutes before losing the front at Turn 1 and sliding off. He still ended that session two tenths clear of Martin, which tells you how the balance of the weekend had been running until Q2.
Marco Bezzecchi heads row two ahead of Ai Ogura and Alex Marquez, who crashed for the second time in two days. Johann Zarco and Francesco Bagnaia came through Q1 together with exactly the same lap time, a coincidence that put Bagnaia on the grid in seventh after a wretched Friday.
Aprilia have never won here
The Red Bull Ring has been Ducati territory for years and Aprilia have yet to win a grand prix at the track. Martin’s own outright best lap here, a 1:27.748 from 2024, was set on a Ducati. What gives Aprilia hope is the stiffer rear tyre construction in use, which suited the RS-GP better than the Desmosedici earlier in the season.
Acosta has something else on his mind. This is his last Austrian weekend with the home KTM team, and he comes in off podiums at Aragon and Misano. Maverick Vinales is absent for a fourth straight round with a shoulder problem, replaced by Pol Espargaro, while Joan Mir sits out after blood tests in Barcelona flagged irregularities.
The 14-lap sprint starts at 3pm local time.
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