BEZZECCHI STAYS CALM AFTER P9 AS APRILIA SECURES Q2 SPOT

Marco Bezzecchi kept his cool after a tough start to the Austrian weekend, finishing ninth in the first qualifying session at the Red Bull Ring. Speedweek reported that the gap at the top was razor-thin: Honda rider Luca Marini was only a hundredth of a second slower than Aprilia’s Marco, while Marini had to go through Q1 and Bezzecchi secured his place in Q2 by finishing ninth.

After the one-hour session, Bezzecchi said he was relieved to have achieved the day’s main objective. “The goal was to get into Q2—that’s what we did, so I’m very satisfied. But the way there wasn’t easy,” he explained. He added that although the team had done good work across the day, the crucial moments of the session were where things became complicated. “During qualifying, when we had to attack, I made some mistakes. Even after the red flag. I wanted to go back out on the same tires, but I couldn’t use the attack properly and then it got really tight. But thanks to my team, it still worked out—they did an excellent job in that situation and I was able to go out again,” Bezzecchi said.

With a final improvement on his second attempt, Bezzecchi raised his time to 1:28.811. Speedweek noted that the result felt less encouraging compared with recent performances, pointing out that Bezzecchi had previously been on pole at the start of 2025 at the same venue and had also delivered the fastest single-lap pace at Spielberg a week earlier.

Still, the Aprilia rider played down the significance of the position. “No panic—it’s only Friday. We’re used to working our way through the weekend. We have time—tonight we’ll sit down together and discuss the next steps. And you can see how close it all is. With the exception of Pedro, who rode in his own world, we’re all very close,” he said.

The report also highlighted how tightly packed the field was: with 19 MotoGP riders within a 0.9-second window in Austria, Bezzecchi’s ninth-place result sat in a broader context of minimal separation.

Looking ahead, Bezzecchi described a key challenge of the Red Bull Ring. “In the base setup, the bike feels very similar to last year, including the tires. The difficult part is loading the front tire correctly—specifically in the central area. That’s a peculiarity of this track. Delaying exactly and keeping the bike stable is the challenge,” he said. Speedweek added that he even ended up in the gravel at one point, but managed to stay upright.