Miller leads Ducati 1-2 in Styrian Grand Prix first practice

Pramac rider Jack Miller led a Ducati 1-2 in first MotoGP practice of the second Red Bull Ring weekend, leading works rider Andrea Dovizioso by just 0.004s.

It took less than 10 minutes for the best time across all of last weekend’s practice sessions to be surpassed, with LCR Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami firing in a 1m24.103s to take an early lead of around two tenths.

Dovizioso lapped within four-hundredths of Nakagami’s time 20 minutes later, but it wasn’t until the very final minutes of the session that a new benchmark was recorded.

This came from Joan Mir, running in the tow of Nakagami’s team-mate Cal Crutchlow to go fastest by 0.068s, before Tech 3 KTM rider Miguel Oliveira recorded the first sub-1m24s effort of the weekend.

But moments later Miller came up with a 1m23.859s that secured him the top spot with FP1.

Dovizioso ran through the gravel at Turn 4 during one of his late-session flying laps, but bounced back with an improvement at the chequered flag, coming up just short of Miller’s effort.

Oliveira settled for third, 0.039s down, while Nakagami was the last rider within a tenth in fourth, being the only rider in the top seven to forgo using a soft rear in the end.

Mir made up a top five split by 0.102s and was two tenths up on sixth-placed Franco Morbidelli, the Petronas Yamaha rider moving up to sixth late at the chequered flag.

Factory rider Brad Binder and Iker Lecuona (Tech3 KTM) made it three KTMs in the top eight, while Yamaha works man Maverick Vinales and championship leader Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha) completed the top 10.

Binder’s factory KTM team-mate Pol Espargaro, who fought for victory in the Austrian Grand Prix last weekend before the red flag interruption and his subsequent clash with Oliveira, was 11th-fastest, forgoing a late-FP1 qualifying simulation.

The top 20 were split by less than a second, with 21st-placed Stefan Bradl – subbing for the injured Marc Marquez at the factory Honda team – 1.055s off the pace.

Avintia Ducati rider Johann Zarco was unable to pass fit for Friday practice, as Thursday medical examinations were due to take place less than 48 hours after his surgery on Wednesday and he was thus ineligible.

Zarco, who had a pin installed into a fractured right scaphoid following his horror crash with Franco Morbidelli in last weekend’s race, has been officially handed a pitlane start penalty for his role in the incident.

Zarco’s team-mate Tito Rabat was the sole rider to crash during FP1, falling late on at Turn 4.

Practice 1 Results