The Ducati Lenovo Team tops Friday at Spielberg with Marc Márquez. Francesco Bagnaia is third



The Ducati Lenovo Team completed the opening day of action at the Spielberg circuit in Austria, host of the thirteenth Grand Prix of the season. Marc Márquez topped the timesheets in both sessions, with Francesco Bagnaia ending Practice in third place.

Márquez focused on the race set-up of his Desmosedici GP machine while remaining near the top for the entire afternoon session. With two minutes to go, Marc posted a 1’28.117, finishing 0.228secs ahead of his closest rival. Bagnaia, second quickest in the morning, showed excellent feeling with the Austrian track as he led the first half of Practice before ultimately securing a direct seed to Q2.

The Ducati Lenovo Team will be back on track tomorrow morning at 10:00 local time (GMT +2) for Free Practice 2, followed by Q2 at 11:15. The thirteenth Sprint of the season will start at 15:00 and will be contested over a 14-lap distance.

Marc Márquez (#93 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 1st
“It was a good day, given we set the fastest lap in both sessions, but at the same time it was a bit more complicated than usual. It’s true we’re coming back from the summer break, but things didn’t go as smoothly. I took a different approach to Practice, staying calmer while focusing on my riding with used tyres and finding consistency on the longer run. We managed to do so, so we need to continue this way tomorrow as there are two or three riders who are very close to us pace-wise. We definitely need to put in some more work with regards to my riding approach of sector two.”

Francesco Bagnaia (#63 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 3rd
“It was a very good day, maybe the best Friday of the season so far, as I had a good feeling with both new and used tyres. I managed to be consistent and try different things, which worked well, and above all I could brake very hard with a good front-end lock feeling – something I had been missing. The race pace is very good, while in the second time attack I couldn’t make the most of the opportunity. The goal right now is to battle for the podium, but we’ll see, as the races have been what made my life more difficult so far this year. The aim is to get a good qualifying and then stay at the front, as I feel really good here.”