Red Bull KTM Tech3 was back on track just five days on from the San Marino GP with the spectacular Red Bull Ring providing the setting for this weekend’s action.

There was little to choose between the MotoGP™ pack on the ten-turn layout with one second covering the top 19 riders at the close of Practice. The afternoon session was disrupted when Alex Márquez’s crash exiting Turn 1 brought out the red flags with eleven minutes to go. 

After starting Friday steadily with a 17th place in FP1, Bastianini showed solid rhythm across the afternoon as he sat inside the top ten midway through the session.

A fast lap lifted the Italian to seventh with 18 minutes remaining before he was shuffled out of the top ten when the red flags were shown. A combination of mistakes and yellow flags in the closing minutes meant ‘La Bestia’ could not improve on his previous best, which left him 14th.

Espargaró started brilliantly by setting the second fastest time in FP1 after fitting a new rear tyre. The afternoon proved more difficult for the former Moto2 World Champion, who was 15th despite finishing just over 0.7s off pace-setter Pedro Acosta’s best time.

Bastianini and Espargaró will be back in action in Spielberg on Saturday in FP2 at 10:10 CEST (UTC+2) before Qualifying starts at 10:50 (UTC+2), which will set the grid for the 14-lap Sprint at 15:00 (UTC+2).

Enea Bastianini: “Today was strange because my speed was clear. I was very confident to go through to Q2, but I did some mistakes in the first time attack and after that the red flag was shown. Then I found yellow flags for my next go and I made another mistake in my final flying lap. Sometimes racing is like this and I can’t dwell on this too long. I feel the harder rear tyre construction is helping us this weekend, as well as the front of our bike. We can brake really late compared to our competitors. We have to be positive because I was close to a top ten place but couldn’t make a clean lap. Otherwise, my pace was good today.”

Pol Espargaró: “It’s a shame we’re outside the top ten. It was nice to be second this morning, but I knew the time was ‘fake’. I put a new tyre in when the rest didn’t. This afternoon I struggled in the last time attack as I was braking so hard and not riding so well - but we can see our bike is fast here. One, it’s a hard-braking track. Plus, the grip is low, which makes it harder for everyone else. But this makes the braking very difficult as we have a lot of front locking. Anyway, I feel confident I can qualify well tomorrow.”