ESPARGARÓ TO START FROM THE FIFTH ROW AND REDDING FROM THE SEVENTH IN AUSTRIA
It was a day divided by the weather today for MotoGP in Austria. After an FP3 that started out wet, the asphalt on the Red Bull Ring gradually dried out so FP4 was basically dry. This made work difficult in the garage. In addition to tyre and wear testing in view of the race, there was also a need to find a good setup for the qualifiers, multiplying the efforts of riders and mechanics.
Given the less-than-perfect conditions, Aleix Espargaró preferred to stay in the garage during the morning FP3 session. In FP4, the only dry session, he focused on testing in view of the race, completing two runs without changing tyres. In qualifying he missed out on going through to Q2 by just a few tenths, while his time of 1’24.762 earned him the third spot on the fifth row of the grid.
After his third place time on the wet track in FP3, Scott Redding was unable to find the same feeling on dry asphalt. Especially in qualifying, where he had to settle for the twentieth spot on the grid with a time of 1’25.067.
ALEIX ESPARGARO’
“In qualifying I expected to be able to do a time around 1’24”5 and in reality we were not that far off. We only missed it by 2 or 3 tenths. Tomorrow a complicated race awaits. This circuit is more demanding for everyone in terms of tyre wear, so we will need to work hard on this aspect. We tried a map in FP4 already in preparation for the race and tomorrow we will try to use the warm up to find a better compromise and to decide which tyre to use – medium or soft.”
SCOTT REDDING
“Unfortunately, on the dry track we were unable to be incisive. Especially in qualifying, even going from the soft rear to the medium, times did not improve enough. There is work to be done. It will not be an easy race for us, but I hope to find some solution to test in warm up after discussing things with the team.”
