Austrian MotoGP: Bagnaia fastest in Practice, Binder only KTM in Q2

Ducati's Francesco Bagnaia led MotoGP Practice at the Red Bull Ring for this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix, as he led an all-Ducati top four.

Bagnaia left it until his final time attack lap to set his best time: a 1:28.508, which gave him the all-time lap record by 0.036 seconds over Marco Bezzecchi's 1:28.544 from 2023.

Bagnaia was fastest by 0.281 seconds in Practice, ahead of Franco Morbidelli. The second of the four Ducatis in the four positions, Morbidelli was less than 0.1 seconds faster than Marc Marquez, the fourth of those Desmosedici riders, with Jorge Martin sandwiched in the middle.

Enea Bastianini crashed on his final time attack run, but he was still able to scrape through to Q2 in 10th place.

While Ducati was looking dominant again on Friday in Austria, the same could not be said for KTM. Brad Binder was the only KTM rider to make it into Q2, in fifth place, as Jack Miller Pedro Acosta, Augusto Fernandez, and Pol Espargaro all missed the top 10, the latter after his bike stopped on-track mid-session.

Alex Marquez and Marco Bezzecchi also made the top 10, Bezzecchi despite a crash at turn three, meaning seven of the eight Ducatis in the field are automatically in Q2. Only Fabio Di Giannantonio will have to go to Q1 after crashed at turn eight and finished down in 20th. 

Joan mir harboured hopes of making Q2 after ending FP1 in ninth, but he finished Practice down in 24th, ahead of only Stefan Bradl who crashed this afternoon at the 2a-2b chicane.

Aprilia was having a miserable afternoon until the final 10 minutes. It didn't have a single rider inside the top 10 until Maverick Vinales' first time attack at the end of Practice, but in the end both Vinales and Espargaro made it through in eighth and seventh, respectively.