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Austrian GP | Zarco leads Ducati’s overwhelming dominance

The French Johann Zarco (Ducati Desmosedici GP22) spearheaded the “overwhelming” dominance of the Borgo Panigale manufacturer’s prototypes, which “put” seven of his bikes among the top ten classified at the end of the first day of free practice of the Austrian MotoGP Grand Prix at the “Red Bull” circuit in Spielberg.

Zarco, with a time of 1:29.837, topped a time table in which Jack Miller, Jorge Martín, Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia, Luca Marini, Marco Bezzecchi and Enea Bastianini also entered their Ducati among the top ten rankedwith the only interference of the Frenchman Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha YZR M 1) -fourth-, the Spanish Maverick Viñales (Aprilia RS-GP) -ninth- and the South African Brad Binder (KTM RC 16), tenth and up to the top nineteen classified in a difference of eight tenths of a second.

For the first time with completely dry asphalt, the MotoGP riders were able to face the new variant of the Austrian track in perfect conditions during the second round of free practice, in which except for the fastest in the morning, the Australian Jack Miller (Ducati Desmosedici GP22), among the leading drivers, was the only one who failed to quickly lower his personal best time.

That’s how in just a couple of laps Miller lost first position at the hands of his own teammatethe Italian “Pecco” Bagnaia (Ducati Desmosedici GP22), followed at barely 21 thousandths of a second by the world leader, the Frenchman Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha YZR M 1).

Just a few minutes later, the spotlight fell on the Spaniard Alex Rins, who placed his Suzuki GSX RR in the lead before make a mistake in the new variant that caused him to go off the trackin a few minutes in which his compatriot Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia RS-GP), with ten minutes of training already played, occupied the last place, which to a certain extent set off the alarms regarding a possible technical problem aside from the physical problems of the pilot after the fall of Great Britain.

Rins could not hold out for too long as leader, surpassed in 36 thousandths of a second by Fabio Quartararo, with Bagnaia in third position and Aleix Espagaró striving to improve his classificationwhich caused him to make a few mistakes, in the form of a high-speed gravel exit, before climbing initially to eighteenth and then eleventh.

Quartararo with a time of 1:30.285 remained the leader for much of the session, chased by the two Suzuki riders, Alex Rins and Joan Mir, with Jack Miller among them after improving his morning time and just a few minutes before the first rain flags (red crosses on a white background) at some points on the Austrian route.

In the last ten minutes of session the first change was carried out by the Spanish Jorge Martín (Ducati Desmosedici GP22) which is He took the lead with 1:30.119ahead of Johann Zarco and Jack Miller, while the Portuguese Miguel Oliveira (KTM RC 16) crashed at turn nine at high speed and dragged along almost the entire shoulder of the area.

Martín was, in the next lap, the first to roll in one minute and 29 seconds, but behind him were both Zarco and Miller, who also got into the same second ahead of him and in which they ultimately ended up top six finishersfrom Zarco to Bagnaia.

The words of Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda RC 213 V) during the day prior to the start of the Grand Prix during his visit to the championship found their particular “echo” at the end of the first day, in which the best motorcycle of the Japanese manufacturer was that of Takaaki Nakagami in a more than discreet twelfth position, which only confirms the absence of a “project” that “Márquez managed as a “runrun”.

After Nakagami finished Alex Rins, they all fout of the second direct classificationas well as Aleix Espargaró, who improved considerably compared to the beginning of the session but not enough to achieve his goal, as did Pol Espargaró (Repsol Honda RC 213 V), Joan Mir, Alex Márquez (Honda RC 213 V) and Raúl Fernández (KTM RC 16), who is having quite a few problems to solve his sporting future in the face of KTM’s stubbornness in letting him go.

The Italian Dennis Foggia (Honda) has been put at the top of the provisional classification of training at the end of the second round of free tests of the Austrian Grand Prix Moto3, at the “Red Bull Ring” circuit in the town of Spielberg, ahead of the Turkish Deniz Öncü (KTM) and the British John McPhee (Husqvarna).

Although the sun did not appear at any time, at least the rain did not fall again on the Spielberg circuit, which led to improved asphalt conditions for the second round of free tests of Moto3, in which practically all the riders lowered their best morning times at the first chance and the succession of leaders was practically unspeakable in those moments.

At each step over the finish line the author of the fastest lap was a different rider, the Italian Stefano Nepa (KTM) started, but The Spaniards Jaume Masá followed him at some point (KTM), Daniel Holgado (KTM) of Iván Ortola (KTM), the Japanese Ayumu Sasaki (Husqvarna) and Tatsuki Suzuki (Honda), the Italian Dennis Foggia (Honda) or the Briton John McPhee (Husqvarna).

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