The Italian Enea Bastianini (Ducati Desmosedici GP21) was in charge of leading the “Ducati Armada” in qualifying for the MotoGP Austrian Grand Prix at the “Red Bull Ring” circuit in Spielberg, ahead of his compatriot Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia (Ducati Desmosedici GP22), with the world leader, the French Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha YZR M 1), fifth.
It’s not going to be easy for Quartararo, who has seen how the worst assumptions were confirmed, by getting up to four Ducati riders ahead of him, Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia RS-GP), who had to earn a pass to the second classification from first, in ninth place, third line of the starting formation.
It was very interesting to see the development of the fourth free practice, in which it was possible to appreciate the “control” that the world leader, Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha YZR M 1), exercised over who he believes to be his most dangerous rival, the Italian Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia (Ducati Desmosedici GP22), as he could be seen for quite a few laps riding behind him, almost until the transalpine suffered a fall at turn nine, without consequences for his physical integrity, and which forced him to “pass long”, while in another area of the track the Aprilia riders, the Spanish Aleix Espargaró and Maverick Viñalestook advantage of one of their “technical breaks” to greet an unexpected visitor to their workshop, the two-time Spanish Formula One world champion, Fernando Alonso.
These fourth practice sessions, which usually serve to find a good rhythm for the race, saw the dominance of the Italian Enea Bastianini, as the spearhead of a Ducati trio formed together with his compatriots Luca Marini and “Pecco” Bagnaia, with Quartararo in fourth position and Aleix Espargaró in tenth place, while Maverick Viñales had to settle for sixteenth position.
Precisely Aleix Espargaró had to be one of the great protagonists of the first classification, not having achieved the direct pass to the second and therefore the Spanish rider came out quickly and willing to improve his performance on a track in which to date he has “choked” the new variant and perhaps also conditioned to a certain extent by his calcaneus injury of the left foot.
This variant, located in turn two, did not finish convincing the second classified in the world championship, although with two consecutive fast laps Aleix Espargaró tried to defend his move to the second classification and, incidentally, help his brother Pol (Repsol Honda RC 213 V), which also failed to achieve a good pace on the Austrian track of the “Red Bull Ring”.
A second time out on the track repeated the image of Aleix Espargaró returning to the track closely followed by his brother Pol Espargaró and although the Aprilia rider achieved the goal and went first to the second classification, the Repsol Honda rider left him outside Fabio di Giannantonio and they also surpassed him Luca Marini and the japanese Takaaki Nakagami (Honda RC 213 V).
In the second classification Aleix Espargaró arrived “hot” and got the first position quickly, although he was later overtaken by the Australian Jack Miller (Ducati Desmosedici GP22), the Italian Enea Bastianini (Ducati Desmosedici GP21) and the Spanish Joan Mir (Suzuki GSX RR), with the world leader Quartararo in sixth position.
another french, johann zarcoalso made the Aprilia rider lose one position, who started the final minutes of the session in sixth position, just ahead of Quartararo, but behind four Ducati and Mir’s Suzuki.
On his sixth lap, the Italian Bagnaia jumped into the fray, who by rolling in 1:28.796 endorsed his teammate Miller by just over a tenth of a second and almost half a second by Quartararo, who on his next lap cut the distance to climb to sixth position just over four tenths of a second from the Ducati rider, but the final stretch of the classification was going to cause quite a few surprises.
Bastianini overtook Bagnaia to achieve his first “pole position” in MotoGP, with up to four Ducati in the first positions, those of both Italians, the Australian Miller and the Spanish Jorge Martín, with the world leader in fifth place, “sandwiched” by his compatriot Johann Zarco (Ducati Desmosedici GP22), who was sixth.
Aleix Espargaró had to settle for ninth position, in the third row of the starting lineup, which will also include his teammate Maverick Viñales and Joan Mir, and already in the fourth row Fabio di Giannantonio, Alex Rins (Suzuki GSX RR ) and the South African Brad Binder (KTM RC 16).
