Red Bull Ring MotoGP: Morbidelli leads Rossi in wet warm-up

Despite overnight rain and further showers in the morning, the Red Bull Ring had dried up sufficiently for slick tyres by the start of the 20-minute warm-up session.

Nearly half the pack emerged on track with slicks as the session got underway, with the rest of the riders switching to dry tyres after a single installation lap.

Morbidelli was the first rider to set a competitive time, going top of the timesheets with a 1m33.774s.

Rossi went nearly two seconds quicker on his first flyer, before Avintia Ducati’s Karel Abraham enjoyed a brief stint at the top with a time of 1m31.668s.

Rossi then managed to shave another three seconds from his previous benchmark, only for Morbidelli to upset him moments later by clocking the circuit in 1m28.803s.

With rain returning on the track at the seven-minute mark, Morbidelli’s time would remain unbeaten for the rest of the session as all riders dived back into the pits to put on wet compounds.

Rossi’s time of 1m29.197s was also unchallenged as he held on to second, ahead of Abraham and the second Avintia Ducati of Tito Rabat.

Petronas Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo was fifth-fastest, while fellow MotoGP rookie Miguel Oliveira ended up sixth for Tech 3 KTM.

Marc Marquez stood outside the top 10 when the race hit the track just before the mid-point of the session, but managed to set a time of 1m33.038s on wet tyres to end up seventh in the final classifications.

He headed the factory KTM of Johann Zarco, Suzuki’s Alex Rins and the Pramac Ducati of Jack Miller, who completed the top 10.

Maverick Vinales wound up 11th, ahead of the factory Ducati duo of Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci.

Session results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	21	Franco Morbidelli	Yamaha	1'28.803
2	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1'29.197	0.394
3	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	1'29.585	0.782
4	53	Tito Rabat	Ducati	1'30.218	1.415
5	20	Fabio Quartararo	Yamaha	1'30.444	1.641
6	88	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	1'31.920	3.117
7	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	1'33.038	4.235
8	5	Johann Zarco	KTM	1'33.805	5.002
9	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	1'34.110	5.307
10	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	1'34.259	5.456
11	12	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	1'34.349	5.546
12	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'34.392	5.589
13	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1'34.413	5.610
14	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	1'34.494	5.691
15	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	1'35.222	6.419
16	6	Stefan Bradl	Honda	1'35.239	6.436
17	55	Hafizh Syahrin	KTM	1'35.259	6.456
18	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	1'35.270	6.467
19	29	Andrea Iannone	Aprilia	1'36.209	7.406
20	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'36.534	7.731
21	63	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati	1'40.504	11.701
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