Martin leads Morbidelli in FP1 as Acosta suffers heavy crash

Jorge Martin led a 1-2 for Pramac in the opening practice for the MotoGP Austrian Grand Prix after a late red flag caused by Pedro Acosta‘s crash.

Having suffered a relatively low-speed fall at the chicane just minutes before, Tech3 rider Acosta suffered another incident in the closing stages of the session, losing control of his GasGas-branded KTM at high-speed on the run down to Turn 4.

Although the Spaniard was able to walk away unscathed from the incident, his bike heavily smashed the barriers before bouncing back on track, spewing debris on the racing line and prompting race control to deploy the red flag.

The session resumed after a short break with under 3m30s left on the clock, but no rider at the front was able to improve their lap time, leaving Martin at the top of the order ahead of team-mate Franco Morbidelli.

Championship leader Martin had gone quickest just seconds before the red flag was deployed for Acosta’s crash, a 1m29.654s putting him two tenths clear of long-time pacesetter Morbidelli and eventually securing him the top spot.

KTM riders set the early pace in practice, with Acosta laying the initial marker with a 1m30.876s before factory rider Brad Binder streaked clear with a 1m30.236s.

KTM wildcard Pol Espargaro then broke the 1m30s barrier to move the goalposts, lapping the Austrian circuit in 1m29.933s on an experimental version of the RC16.

With 15 minutes completed, Morbidelli ended KTM’s stranglehold on the top spot in the timesheets, courtesy of a 1m29.872s effort on his Ducati GP24.

The Italian’s time remained unbeaten until the five minutes of the session when Martin put on a set of soft tyres, with the red flag preventing any further improvements.

Behind the Pramac duo, Espargaro finished third for KTM based on his early-session pace, with Francesco Bagnaia taking fourth on the factory Ducati.

Binder took fifth spot, while Acosta was able to keep sixth place despite his late shunt.

Maverick Vinales led Aprilia in seventh place on a day his team-mate Aleix Espargaro suffered two crashes in the space of 15 minutes, both at the tricky Turn 2 chicane that caught out a number of riders.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

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