| The first day of practice on the Red Bull Ring proved to be a demanding one for the Aprilia Racing riders. Marco Bezzecchi started off his Friday with positive feedback, consistently staying in the top spots during FP1 and finishing the session third. The practice session, on the other hand, was more complicated for the Italian rider, who was unable to replicate the feeling from the morning, partially due to an off-track excursion during the penultimate flying lap. Bezzecchi finished the session eighteenth, which means he’ll have to battle in order to secure a spot in Q2.
Jorge Martín, who is continuing on his path of adapting to the RS-GP25, finished FP1 with good feelings and in eighth place. In the practice session, the Spanish rider fell victim to a crash on turn 9 in the opening moments. Fortunately, Martín managed to get back on the track straight away, finishing sixteenth. He’ll also have to go through Q1 to try and earn a spot in Q2.
MARCO BEZZECCHI
“This morning, we started off extremely well, whereas in the afternoon, we struggled a bit more. I made a few small mistakes, and I also ran long a couple times too many, but that wasn’t the only problem. The feeling wasn’t the greatest. We simply need to analyse what happened carefully, study the data well, and try to rectify the situation on Saturday. We still have Q1, which we’ll try to use to our favour.”
JORGE MARTÍN
“I need time to adapt, and the crash certainly didn’t help because, once back on the track, I had lost a lot of confidence and I struggled to brake hard. Lap by lap, the situation improved, but I still need time to have a good understanding of the bike. I feel like my potential and the bike’s potential are higher, but we still need to put all the pieces together. I hope that, along with the team, we’ll be able to find something that we can do on Saturday to take another step forward.”
PAOLO BONORA
“This certainly was not an easy Friday. After a good session by Marco in FP1, we were unable to go through to Q2 in the afternoon. We are moving along as scheduled with Jorge, working to ensure that he has the confidence he needs in the bike. In any case, we are optimistic about Saturday. The goal is to improve on the points Jorge and Marco have pointed out in order to be ready on race day.” |
