The Qatar Airways Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix action continued on Saturday with a busy schedule, which took place in cold and windy conditions. Both in Q1, Pedro Acosta and Augusto Fernandez respectively qualified in 15th and 17th on the grid ahead of the afternoon's Tissot Sprint. Fernandez grabbed a 9th place to score his first sprint point since the Spanish Grand Prix, while Acosta suffered a nasty crash towards the end of the 13 lap-shootout.

Qualifying

Rookie Pedro Acosta showcased a strong performance on Friday’s Practice for what was his first ever session in MotoGP™ on the island, but he came a bit short to the top 10 after a late crash. After 40 minutes of FP2 to make the final adjustments ahead of qualifying, Acosta headed to Q1. The sun had finally showed up and we had a tricky track, drying but still with some damp marks around the layout. After a quick exit, the rookie chose to stay in the garage to evaluate his opponent’s outings, and it was when just 7 minutes remained on the clock that he went out with the slick tyres, and he immediately took the provisional lead with a 1'33.070. In the next lap, he continued to improve and a 1’31.627 placed him back at the top, after the spot was taken by Luca Marini in the previous lap. 1’30.853. He continued to go down, with a first 1’29.976 clocked in, but both Luca Marini and Enea Bastianini were also improving behind. Then he pulled out a 1’29.817 with one last flying lap left, but the track had dried quite quickly and there were red sectors all over the place. Unfortunately, a few riders improved in the final seconds, leaving Acosta in P5, meaning that he was set to start the Australian Grand Prix from P15 on the grid. On the other side of the garage, Augusto Fernandez was amongst the first one to exit at the start of Q1, directly with the slicks. He did a few laps to get the feels but returned to the pit box to make some adjustments on the bike. Run 2 was of 3 laps, and his final lap in 1’30.149 will see him start the Australian Grand Prix from 17th on the grid.

Tissot Sprint

Lights out at 15:00 on the island for the first-ever Tissot Sprint in Australia, as the weather allowed it on Saturday. From his fifteenth place on the grid, Pedro Acosta dropped one position to exit lap one behind Alex Rins, but he moved back to 15th shortly after as Johann Zarco dropped. Quickly refocused after a crazy first lap from the mid-grid, Pedro made a move on Rins in the final sector of the following lap to exit in P14 and head towards Luca Marini, not far ahead. One lap later, at the same place, it was Marini’s turn to be overtaken by the young rookie who found himself in P13 after three laps. Alex Marquez was more than two seconds away, making it difficult but not impossible to catch up on him. On lap 5, the Gresini rider crashed, leaving Acosta in 12th, 1.4 seconds away from Raul Fernandez who had dropped from his row 2-start. Then local hero Jack Miller crashed, and that left the rookie in P11, with quite a big gap to Raul Fernandez as just six laps remained. Unfortunately, the rookie suffered quite a nasty highside in T6 of lap 11 as he was ejected from his RC16, calling it an end for the day. After a medical check, nothing was found broken, but the young rider will need to pass another check tomorrow morning to be allowed to race. On the other side of the garage, it all ended pretty well for Augusto Fernandez. His start from 17th was not ideal as he dropped positions in the opening lap to exit the first lap in P20 behind Joan Mir. Progressively, he settled into his pace and started gaining positions one by one. Of course, some crashes ahead helped him, as he was in 18th after 5 laps behind Alex Rins. Two laps later, the Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 rider found the space in the first sector to overcome the Factory Yamaha rider, to move on to Fabio Quartararo. Augusto was close in the back wheel of the French man, waiting for his opportunity, which he eventually got on lap 10 as moved past both Quartararo and Marini, to P12. Lap 12 turned out to be rather hectic, with Marco Bezzecchi and Maverick Vinales involved in a high-speed crash, followed shortly by Brad Binder who also made a mistake, while teammate Acosta had gone down to the previous lap! Augusto took the checkered flag in P9, to score a point on a Saturday for the first time since his 7th place at the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez.

We’ll be back in action on Sunday with the main race at 14:00 local time (GMT+11), with the hope that Pedro Acosta will be declared fit to ride!