How Marco Bezzecchi almost let Austrian MotoGP red flag send him to Q1

The Austrian MotoGP saw a near miss for Marco Bezzecchi on Friday, the Italian just scraping through to Q2 in ninth.

Bezzecchi was only third-fastest of the Aprilias in MotoGP Practice, and made several mistakes in his late time attacks at the end of the afternoon session that determines which 10 riders will avoid having to go through Q1 on Saturday.

Those time attacks came mostly after a red flag for an odd crash for Alex Marquez on the exit of turn one.

Bezzecchi chose to use the same tyre he’d used in his (ultimately aborted) time attack from before the red flag in his first run after the session resumed, but this, he said, cost him “rhythm” in the final minutes.

“It was a good day overall, a good start of the weekend,” said Marco Bezzecchi.

“Maybe in the time attack I made a couple of mistakes too much, but apart from this, the pace and the work we did during the day was good. 

“So, happy we reached the Q2, that was the target, even if we risked a little bit. 

“I think it was more my mistake, especially after the red flag; I wanted to try with the same tyre, but I made a mistake, so I lost a bit of rhythm. 

“But fortunately my guys were ready and they helped me through the end of the session, so it was good.”

Although he was only ninth in the classification, Bezzecchi felt that he had comparable potential to his Aprilia Racing team-mate and joint points leader Jorge Martin, who ended the day fifth and only a tenth behind second.

His target, though, is still to try to close the gap to Pedro Acosta, who is the clear reference in Austria after day one.

“If the qualifying was today, probably it was not super-good, because I'm ninth,” Bezzecchi said.

“But Pedro [Acosta] has been super quick since the morning and in the afternoon maybe even more.

“Jorge [Martin] and me, we are quite similar.

“I miss a little bit in sector two compared to them. 

“It's not super-easy, it’s super-tight apart from Pedro. So hopefully tomorrow we can make a step and be closer to him.”

It was not only Acosta who was fast for KTM – Brad Binder was, too, finishing eighth in Practice, one place ahead of Bezzecchi.

Binder had said that one of the reasons for his improved speed compared to this year’s norm for him is the special heat resistant tyre – harder in construction than the regular tyre – that Michelin takes to Austria.

Bezzecchi said he felt okay with the tyre, even with temperatures much lower than last year’s Austria weekend, although he noted how difficult it is to find traction with the rear of the bike in both acceleration and braking.

“I felt, in terms of tyre feeling, it's very similar to last year, just a little bit colder,” he said.

“But in this track it's very difficult to find the traction, especially in the centre of the tyre – it's the most difficult point while we are riding. So, also the straight [line] stopping is not super-easy. 

“But overall the feeling was not so bad. I think obviously we must improve, but it was not a bad start.”