While all eyes were on Pedro Acosta’s campaign to win his first grand prix on KTM’s home ground in Austria, it was Aprilia’s Jorge Martin who claimed pole position for the race in a tight qualifying session on Saturday.
Acosta will start third behind the joint championship leaders, with Marc Marquez squeezing ahead of him on the factory Ducati. But there was almost nothing to choose between the trio as less than a tenth of a second separated them.
The day began with what should have been a completely meaningless Free Practice 2 session, given that it started out slightly damp and many riders sat out a large part of it. But it turned spicy at the very end.
Marc Marquez, who was among the last to venture out, went top of the timesheets with just a couple of minutes to go. Despite the session counting for nothing ahead of a Qualifying 2 that would almost certainly be fully dry, he continued to push. Marquez suffered a hairy moment at Turn 4 on his next lap, then dramatically crashed at Turn 1 on what would have been his final effort.
While Ducati pondered its options in the garage, sunny patches continued to dry the track as the riders headed out for Qualifying 1. This one was relatively uneventful, although it couldn’t have been closer as LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco and Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia progressed from the session with exactly the same lap time!
Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia) would have been disappointed not to make it through, but the British GP winner could not get within a tenth of the pace-setters by the end of a session in which he switched bikes midway through, and will line up 13th for the races.
Marc Marquez looked calm but thoughtful as the clock ticked down towards the start of Q2. Ducati had assessed that there was no significant damage to his primary bike following the FP2 spill, so Marc headed into the battle for pole with all his best weapons at the ready.
Acosta led the way after the first set of laps early in the session, but the real battle only got going after everyone bolted on one last fresh tyre with a few minutes to go. Martin made an immediate statement by going fastest with his first lap. The 2024 world champion kept his head down on his next tour, finding more time as Acosta lit up the timing screens just behind him.
The KTM fell a fraction short, however, and then Marquez rubbed salt into the wound by elbowing his way into second place before running off the track and writing off any chance of improving on his next lap. There were no further moves at the top, however, leaving the Martin/Marquez/Acosta trio covered by a mere 0.071s at the end of the session.
Marco Bezzecchi in fourth place was in a different league from the front-row boys, two-and-a-half tenths off pole on the factory Aprilia. There was another gap to Trackhouse Aprilia’s returning star Ai Ogura, who will line up fifth alongside Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez.
Bagnaia will surely be pleased with seventh place given his recent slump. The factory Ducati man will share the third row with fellow Italians Fabio Di Giannantonio and Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.
Fermin Aldeguer failed to produce in Q2 despite high expectations for him on the special tyre compound used in Austria and his strong Friday form. Edged on the fourth row by Johann Zarco (Honda) and Brad Binder (KTM), he was slowest in the session, almost a second off the pace.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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