Jack Miller leads dominant Ducati 1-2 from Johann Zarco in FP1
Despite the Red Bull Ring beginning to dry following overnight rain, riders had no option but to use wet tyres for the start of FP1.
With that said, sector four had a significant dry line appearing just minutes into the opening practice of the weekend.
Classified as turns 2a-2b, the new chicane at the Red Bull Ring caught out title contenders Fabio Quartararo and Aleix Espargaro early on.
Stefan Bradl was the next rider to run through the gravel after getting his braking for the chicane wrong ahead of Maverick Vinales.
As track conditions continued to improve, KTM’s Miguel Oliveira was the early pacesetter from Johann Zarco and the Suzukis of Alex Rins and Joan Mir.
After momentarily losing top spot to Jack Miller, Oliveira bounced back immediately to go quickest before running wide at turn one.
Quartararo, who already ran wide at the new chicane, then followed Oliveira in out braking himself for turn one.
Down in 13th, the reigning world champion began showing frustration after making his second mistake of the session.
With Bradl back inside the Repsol Honda garage following his opening stint, Marc Marquez then appeared as he began deep discussions with the German rider.
On-track it was Suzuki who began showing their pace as Rins went quickest moments before Mir set a time of 1:37.153s to overhaul his team-mate.
As Zarco lowered the benchmark time even further courtesy of a first sub 1m 37s lap of the session, fellow Ducati rider Marco Bezzecchi became the first rider to swap wet tyres for dry.
While Zarco initially stayed atop the timingsheets, Bezzecchi’s decision to change to dry tyres prompted most of the grid to do so.
Oliveira was the first rider to light up the leaderboard as he went quickest by over three tenths, however, the Portuguese rider was soon surpassed by Miller.
A stunning time of 1:32.987 then saw Miller go six tenths quicker than Jorge Martin. While one Australian was leading the way, another had to pick up his machine from the gravel as Remy Gardner crashed at turn five.
As Miller continued to churn out lap times that were significantly quicker than anyone else, the main battle was to determine who could secure second.
Martin was holding second with less than a minute to go before team-mate Zarco jumped ahead of the Spaniard to make it a Ducati 1-2-3.
Ducati’s trio was then broken up when Mir jumped into third place, while Quartararo finished fifth.
