Ducati: An Endless Nightmare for Pecco Bagnaia, While Marc Marquez Plays Hide-and-Seek

The qualifying sessions for the MotoGP Austrian Grand Prix ended with a surprise at the top of the standings: Pedro Acosta, in fact, set the fastest time overall with a best lap of 1:28.381, bringing smiles to the KTM pit—the Austrian brand that has high hopes for its home Grand Prix. Behind Acosta was Fermín Aldeguer (Ducati Gresini), 0.127 seconds behind, while third—0.187 seconds back—was the returning Ai Ogura on an Aprilia Trackhouse.

Marc Marquez, on the other hand, played a bit of hide-and-seek: usually very fast at Spielberg, the Catalan Ducati rider settled for fourth place, replicating his result from the morning and posting a best time 204 thousandths slower than Acosta’s. In fifth place was Jorge Martin, who shares the lead in the overall standings with Marquez: the Aprilia rider trails the leader by 222 thousandths.

Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ducati VR46, +0.252), Brad Binder (KTM, +0.269), Alex Marquez (Ducati Gresini, +0.321), and Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha, +0.436). “El Diablo” snatched tenth place from Luca Marini (Honda), who finished eleventh, just four thousandths behind the Frenchman.

The story surrounding Pecco Bagnaia remains a disappointing one: the rider from Piedmont, who is also grappling with internal controversy within the Ducati garage following the off-air incident at Misano, did not go beyond 18th place, with a best lap time 885 thousandths slower than Acosta’s.

Along with him and Marini, Johann Zarco (LCR Honda), Diogo Moreira (LCR Honda), Enea Bastianini (KTM Tech3), Pol Espargaró (KTM Tech3), Alex Rins (Yamaha), Franco Morbidelli (Ducati VR46), Raul Fernandez (Aprilia Trackhouse), Takaaki Nakagami (Honda), Jack Miller (Yamaha Pramac), and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha Pramac).