Acosta owns Friday at the Red Bull Ring
Two sessions, two fastest times. Pedro Acosta walked away from Friday at the Austrian Grand Prix with the kind of afternoon KTM has been waiting for at the circuit its owners named.
The Spaniard led FP1 in the morning, part of a KTM one-two, then repeated the trick in the hour-long Practice session that decides who skips Q1. He had already bolted on a fresh soft rear with half an hour left and rattled off three session-best laps in a row. The quickest of them, a 1m28.381s, held to the flag.
Fermin Aldeguer got closest. The Gresini Ducati rider ended 0.127s back. Ai Ogura, returning to the Trackhouse Aprilia, took third.
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A red flag and a lap that never counted
With around 13 minutes left, Alex Marquez went down on the straight between Turns 1 and 2. Nothing dramatic preceded it, which is what made it strange. Race direction stopped the session with 11 minutes and 42 seconds showing so marshals could drag the Ducati clear.
Marquez was unhurt and rejoined once the track went green. The restart turned the last stretch into a short shootout, and Acosta went quicker still, a 1m28.371s on a used soft rear. Track limits took it off him. He kept the position anyway.
Marc Marquez, who leads the championship, was fourth with a late 1m28.585s, just ahead of Aprilia’s Jorge Martin. Fabio Di Giannantonio put the VR46 Ducati sixth and Brad Binder made it two KTMs straight into Q2 in seventh.
Honda shut out, Bagnaia in trouble again
Alex Marquez recovered to eighth despite his crash, with Marco Bezzecchi ninth and Fabio Quartararo tenth on the Yamaha. Behind them, Honda’s problems stayed where they have been all season. Luca Marini was the brand’s best in 11th on a 1m28.821s, outside the cut. Johann Zarco took 12th on the LCR bike after crashing at Turn 4 early in the hour.
Pecco Bagnaia goes into Q1 for the fifth weekend running. For a rider on the factory Ducati alongside a championship leader, that number is starting to define his season more than any result has.
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