As Autosport reports, Jorge Martin snatched pole position for the MotoGP Austrian Grand Prix on Saturday morning. The Aprilia rider edged out Marc Marquez and Pedro Acosta in a fiercely contested qualifying session at the Austrian venue.
That said, Saturday started with a completely meaningless Free Practice 2 session that turned surprisingly spicy in its dying moments. The track began slightly damp, leading many riders to sit out a large part of the running. But with just a couple of minutes to go, Marc Marquez vaulted to the top of the timesheets on the factory Ducati. Despite the session counting for nothing ahead of a dry Qualifying 2, he kept pushing hard. That aggression bit him with a hairy moment at Turn 4, followed immediately by a dramatic crash at Turn 1 on his final effort.
Qualifying 1 brought its own bizarre drama as LCR Honda's Johann Zarco and Ducati's Francesco Bagnaia progressed to the next phase with exactly the same lap time. Meanwhile, Trackhouse Aprilia's Raul Fernandez missed the cut after switching bikes midway through the session, leaving the British GP winner 13th on the grid.
Once Q2 commenced, the real battle exploded into life when the riders bolted on fresh rubber with minutes remaining. Martin made an immediate statement by going fastest, then found even more time on his subsequent tour. Acosta lit up the timing screens just behind him, but the KTM fell a fraction short. Marc Marquez then rubbed salt into the wound by elbowing his way into second place before running off the track, wiping out any chance to improve.
When the dust settled, less than a tenth of a second separated the top three. The Martin/Marquez/Acosta trio were covered by a mere 0.071s at the end of the session, locking out the front row. Behind them, Marco Bezzecchi slotted into fourth place on the factory Aprilia, two-and-a-half tenths off pole. Trackhouse Aprilia's returning star Ai Ogura took fifth alongside Gresini Ducati's Alex Marquez.
Francesco Bagnaia salvaged seventh place to share the third row with Fabio Di Giannantonio and Yamaha's Fabio Quartararo. Unfortunately, Fermin Aldeguer failed to produce in Q2 despite strong Friday form, ending up slowest in the session and almost a second off the pace on the fourth row alongside Johann Zarco (Honda) and Brad Binder (KTM).
