The Spanish Joan Mir shone with its own light throughout the first free testing session of the MotoGP Styrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull circuit in Spielberg, which he dominated almost at all times, although on the last lap the Japanese Takaaki nakagami he snatched the best time in the category.
Nakagami set a best time on his last lap of 1: 23.805 and beat the reigning world champion by just 76 thousandths of a second, who led the timesheets for many minutes and both were the only ones to roll in the same second and below 1:23, where both the absolute record of the circuit are established, held by Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda RC 213 V) with 1: 23.027 (2019), as the race record, held by the Italian Andrea Dovizioso since the same year in 1: 23.827.
The third position went to the Spanish Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia RS-GP), who in the last laps of the batch commanded the timesheets on a couple of occasions but had to settle for third place, ahead of up to four more Spaniards, Alex Rins (Suzuki GSX RR), Pol Espargaró (Repsol Honda RC 213 V), Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda RC 213 V) and Maverick Viñales (Yamaha YZR M 1).
The current world leader, the Frenchman Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha YZR M 1) had to settle for eighth position, ahead of his compatriot Johann Zarco (Ducati Desmosedici GP21), who equaled the record to one thousandth of a second, and Australian Jack Miller (Ducati Desmosedici GP21).
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The Spanish Dani Pedrosa, who is in the news for returning to competition as a KTM RC 16 test rider, was for many minutes one of the riders directly classified for the second classification with the ninth fastest time and as the best KTM rider with a record of 1: 25.062.
Midway through the session Pedrosa had technical problems with one of his bikes and had to return to his workshop to take the second bike, with which he continued the session to be eleventh with a time of 1: 24.850, but maintaining his “status” of best KTM rider, as the Portuguese Miguel Oliveira was fifteenth and the South African Brad Binder finished eighteenth.
Oliveira suffered a mishap when he “came out through the ears” (he flew over his motorcycle) in turn three and suffered a strong blow that kept him sitting on the ground for a few minutes trying to catch “his breath” and no longer allowed him to improve his personal brand.
The Spanish Iker Lecuona (KTM RC 16) was another of the pilots who starred in his particular mishap when he went to the ground in turn three ten minutes after starting after losing grip on the front end of his bike, which ultimately relegated him to twentieth position.