Bezzecchi grabs pole as Vinales withdraws

Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi took pole position for MotoGP’s Austrian Grand Prix after emerging from Q1 to top the timesheets in one of the most entertaining qualifying sessions of the season.

Championship leader Marc Marquez will start from the second row after a low-speed crash late in the session cost him dear.

There was almost as much interest in an unusually star-studded Q1 session as there would be for the pole battle that followed. Among other contenders, both the factory Aprilias (Jorge Martin and Bezzecchi) were competing with factory Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo and VR46 Ducati star Fabio di Giannantonio for the two spots in Q2.

The Aprilias set the pace early in the session, Bezzecchi leading Martin after the first runs. The signs were thus good that they had made progress after a difficult Friday afternoon in which they had suffered wheelspin issues in the heat.  

The only man close to them was Tech3 KTM rider Enea Bastianini – and indeed it was the Italian who would show them the way on the final quick runs. He snatched the fastest time of the session in impressive style, almost bettering it the following lap for good measure.

Bezzecchi was unable to improve on that final run, but his early time was still good enough for second, withstanding a marginal improvement from Martin. The reigning world champion will start 14th after Honda’s Luca Marini slipped ahead of him with a late lap to secure 13th.

Quartararo continued his Friday struggles and was never a threat over a full lap, finishing fifth in Q1 and thus booking himself a miserable 15th place on the grid – after taking four pole positions this season.

The attention given to Q1 proved absolutely justified as Bezzecchi continued where he had left off to throw down an unbeatable challenge on the final Q2 flying runs. He credited Friday evening input from Valentino Rossi for a large part of his weekend’s dramatic turnaround.

While dominant championship leader Marc Marquez lay down the early benchmark in the session, he felt the depth of the competition as the final minutes unfolded. By the time the Spaniard was ready to embark on his quick laps, Bezzecchi, Alex Marquez and factory Ducati team-mate Francesco Bagnaia had already pushed him down to fourth.

Knowing that he would need to find at least another couple of tenths, Marc cracked at the Turn 2 chicane with a low-side at the second part of the corner. Though he was able to pick up his damaged bike and register one more lap, his early time would prove his best.

Marc was probably lucky to remain fourth with that time after two KTM riders, Bastianini and Pedro Acosta, saw promising laps unravel in the final sector – Acosta with a particularly dramatic slide in the last corner.

When all was said and done, Bastianini had netted fifth and Acosta seventh, with Gresini Ducati’s Fermin Aldeguer splitting them. 

Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati), Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia) and Joan Mir (Honda) rounded out the top 10.

Acosta’s factory KTM team-mate Brad Binder was 11th while Johann Zarco was an unhappy 12th after a crash in practice followed by another in Q2. 

Maverick Vinales (Tech3 KTM) qualified last after competing only one run in Q1 due to his lack of physical endurance. However, the Spaniard, returning to action in Austria following a crash at July’s German Grand Prix, decided after qualifying that he would withdraw from the weekend.

Austrian Grand Prix – Q2 results