First seasonal pole position after Silverstone for Jorge Martin, championship leader and front row leader at Spielberg, where the Austrian Grand Prix will be held. An all-Spanish top 3, where the Aprilia rider will have to defend himself from the return of Marc Marquez, his direct rival in the title fight, and Pedro Acosta.
Qualifying report
The Q1 at Spielberg ended with a first step forward made by Bagnaia after the difficulties suffered recently. The Ducati rider indeed secured the pass to Q2 finishing in 1:28.753, curiously the same time set by Johann Zarco, with the duo ahead by a tenth over Raul Fernandez, first of the eliminated. Q2 started with Marc Marquez regularly on track despite the crash in turn 1 at the end of FP2, the Spaniard was the first to lead the standings with an interesting time, only to be overtaken by compatriot Pedro Acosta, the latter able to jump ahead of the group at the end of his third lap. The top 12 of the starting grid was obviously decided in the last five minutes, during which (besides Alex Marquez’s crash) Martin snatched pole from Acosta, the latter then dropping to 3rd behind Marc Marquez, with the three riders packed within just 71 thousandths of a second.
1st, Jorge Martin – Aprilia
“Honestly, I enjoyed this pole. When I feel that everything is fine with the bike I can push hard, and that’s what I miss a bit on Friday. Here luckily the base was there, and we only worked on small details. I did a nice run alone pushing like a beast and this ’27 came out which was a nice lap. Honestly, there were improvements compared to yesterday, when the bike had no rear grip and I suffered quite a bit. Now instead we made a nice step overall and this helped me a bit everywhere.”
Read more GP Austria 2026, the qualifying report
2nd, Marc Marquez – Ducati
“I am very happy because I saw that I was struggling especially after yesterday’s feeling, particularly on the flying lap. Today we made a step forward and it is very important to start on the front row, both for the sprint and for the long race. We will try to give 100%, with Pedro who is very strong and Jorge who has great speed and talent. For me Martin is closer in the championship, but there are still many races left and we will have to give 100%. Today Jorge is on pole and will be very strong.”
3rd, Pedro Acosta – KTM
“It is known how much we struggle in qualifying with the soft tire, so we have to be satisfied. We start in third position, then we will see what we can do today. It is easy to make mistakes on this circuit, so we will have to be as calm as possible. Marc showed a nice pace this morning and Jorge will definitely fight for the world championship. We will see.”
