The competition only got tighter on the second day in Spielberg, narrow margins separating Luca Marini and Joan Mir as they finished nose to tail in a chaotic Sprint race. Both sides of the garage finding more pace for a Sunday recovery.
Starting the day with sixth place in a productive Free Practice 2 session, Luca Marini was primed to attack Q1. With a plethora of race winners and World Champions in the session, it was as tight as ever and a margin of just 0.2s saw Marini finish third in Q1 – ahead of Jorge Martin but just missing a transfer spot. Having shown stronger pace over longer runs, the #10 knew he had more for the Sprint and steadily picked his way through a chaotic start to the race. Battling with Quartararo and his Honda HRC Castrol teammate for the latter half, Marini took 12th at the flag and edged out Mir of just a tenth.
It was another unfortunately dramatic Sprint for Joan Mir who found himself taking avoiding action as the lights went out, Bagnaia’s slow-starting machine drifting across the track and pushing him wide. Last on the exit of Turn 1, Mir showed off his superior pace to work his way forward and join Marini in the battle for 12th. Showing strong pace throughout his comeback, the result puts the #36 in good stead for the full-length Sunday race where he is aiming to capitalise on his tenth-place start.
28-laps of Austrian Grand Prix action are scheduled to start at 14:00 Local Time in Spielberg.