HARD-FOUGHT TOP 10 FOR ROOKIE PEDRO ACOSTA IN HOT AUSTRIAN SPRINT, DNF FOR AUGUSTO FERNANDEZ

An exciting packed-action Super Saturday awaited the Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 MotoGP™ squad on Saturday morning at the Motorrad Grand Prix von Österreich. Having missed out on the top 10 at last on Friday, rookie Pedro Acosta qualified 14th, while teammate Augusto Fernandez placed his GASGAS RC16 on the 16th spot of the grid. In the afternoon’s Tissot Sprint, Acosta finished 10th of the 14-lap shootout, while Fernandez was forced to retire a few minutes before the end of the Sprint.

Luckily for everyone's sake, Pedro Acosta’s Saturday was less dramatic than his Friday, as we saw the rookie go down three times and miss out on a direct Q2 by a very narrow margin. Back in action for Free Practice 2 this morning, the young Shark rolled on with a 1'29.808, finishing 8th of the session, before the qualifying. Joined by his Pierer Mobility fellows Jack Miller and Pol Espargaro in Q1, Acosta took an early lead as he set a 1’28.864, making it a 1-2 ahead of Jack Miller after the first run. Second run started, and both Jack Miller and Pol Espargaro improved their times to settle in the top 2 spots. Acosta gained a few thousandths to 1’28.711, but was in P4 before his final flying lap. All eyes were on the rookie, who saw the red in sector 1, but eventually, he clocked in a 1’28.659. Pedro Acosta failed to qualify in Q2, finishing 4th of the session, 0.024 seconds from Espargaro. As lights went out, Acosta took off from P14 and took a rather decent start that allowed him to keep contact with the riders ahead. Soon after 3 laps he was at the doors of the top 10, pressuring Miguel Oliveira with similar lap times. Behind, there was Marco Bezzecchi wanting to make it too in the top 10, and he overtook the rookie, as a small gap grew between the two. At the front, Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin were 0.8 seconds ahead, with Marc Marquez doing everything to catch them up. A crash from Marc Marquez on lap 9 gifted Acosta a position, and with 4 laps remaining the #31 was closing the gap on Oliveira 0.3 seconds from him, riding at slightly higher pace. We saw the Trackhouse racing rider drop within the final laps, leaving Acosta to take advantage of it and see the checkered flag in 10th.

On the left side of the garage, Augusto Fernandez qualified in P16 ahead of both Tissot Sprint and Sunday’s race. After the final preparations of FP2, the Spaniard was not far from the Q2 spots after run 1, with a 1’29.104 that saw him being provisionally on the fourth row, but late improvements from his opponent meant that he finished 6th, 0.537 seconds from the fastest time set by Jack Miller. From P16, Augusto Fernandez lost some grounds in the first laps, unable to defend his position, and we saw him in P22 after five laps behind Alex Rins. From there, the Spaniard did all he could to get into a better rhythm. A long lap penalty from Joan Mir to complete saw him gain one position to P21 as he kept trying battling it for 20th with Rins. Unfortunately, the #37 was handed a long lap penalty due to exceeding track limits. Shortly after it was completed, the Spaniard was forced to return to his pit box and retire from the race due to a technical issue. Fernandez will regroup with his crew tonight, as they get another chance to do well on Sunday, with the main race scheduled at 14:00 local time (GMT+2).

Position: 10^th

Championship: 6^th

Points: 122

"It was a challenging day! We were fast overall, but we missed Q2 by a small margin, and then starting from P14 is not the same as starting a few rows at the front, but we weren't fast enough, so that's the game. In the race, we had an issue that we need to look into, but I think that if we can solve it tonight, we have a margin to do better. Tomorrow will be a very difficult race, the weather looks uncertain, so we will have to play with what we have!"

Position: DNF

Championship: 17^th

Points: 15

"We had some issues with the rear of the bike, it was really difficult for me to manage it and I was always at the limits of the track. I got a long lap penalty and my race was more or less over. It is a shame because we wanted to get information for tomorrow, so we have to start all over again. We will need to analyse what happened today, and try to make amendments so we can have a better Sunday. Our pace has not been bad this weekend, and the goal is to fight for points.”

Team Manager

"Saturday in Austria was a bit more difficult than what we were expecting. After missing Q2 yesterday, Pedro Acosta missed his last chance for Q2 with again a very small gap, which is a shame. From P14, he made it to the top 10, but it is quite difficult to recover positions in MotoGP. He had a decent gap to the 9th, but the performance was not quite right to make it in the points today. Anyway, it was a good race overall, he is feeling well on the bike, so we just need to put everything together to perform better tomorrow. On his side, Augusto Fernandez had his second best qualifying of the season just outside the top 15. He had a good pace in the sprint, trying to prepare as much as possible for tomorrow's race, but unfortunately he had some troubles with the rear part of the bike. We need to understand what happened, and try preparing for a new fight tomorrow. MotoGP is really competitive, it won't be easy to score points, but we are not giving up and we will give our best!”

GALLERY

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