Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP‘s Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli were pushing on the Friday to make the best possible start to the Motorrad Grand Prix von Österreich race weekend. Quartararo finished in 9th place in the Practice session and succeeded in securing a place in tomorrow‘s Q2. Morbidelli ended in 17th place and will take part in Q1.
Quartararo led the morning Free Practice session for the majority of the 45 minutes and ultimately finished it in second place. The positive start to the Spielberg race weekend gave the Frenchman an extra spring in his step for the 60-minute Practice in the afternoon. With dark clouds looming, he was quick to put in some strong laps, holding seventh place with a 1‘29.899s early on in the session, but it wasn‘t enough to keep him in the top 10. The Frenchman needed to put his head down again in the final stages and improved multiple times. His 1‘29.155s, set on lap 26/30, ultimately earned him ninth place, 0.622s from first.
Morbidelli had put in solid work in the morning practice session, which he hoped would set him up nicely for the battle for the coveted top 10 in the Practice session. However, the pace in the afternoon was hot right from the get-go, as it remained uncertain whether rain would fall later on. The Italian found himself in 15th place after the first 15 minutes. Despite improving to a 1‘29.832s in the final stages as the time attacks started to roll in, Morbido remained in 15th place. He had one final push on his last run and bettered his time to a 1‘29.621s, clocked on lap 23/24. It put him in 17th position in the Practice classification.
