Jack Miller was fastest at the opening of the Austrian Grand Prix, held in mixed conditions as the session started in wet conditions, albeit without rain, and with the new chicane at Turn 2 slowing down the lap times absolutely . The Ducati rider, in the final part of the session and already on dry tires, managed to lower the time to 1:30.756, far from the 1:22.827 achieved by Johann Zarco last year in this same session, held in the dry. That difference of almost eight seconds must be attributed, in large part, to the new chicane installed between curves 1 and 3, which cuts the old straight with two new curves, 2a and 2b, although the track conditions may also have influenced at that slow
Zarco was precisely the second fastest in the time table, ahead of Joan Mir and last year’s winner in the first Austrian race, Jorge Martín. The leader of the World Championship, Fabio Quartararo, was fifth, ahead of Alex Rins and Brad Binder, the winner in the second race here of 2021, in extreme rain conditions.
Takaaki Nakagami was the first Honda to finish 8th, just ahead of Enea Bastianini and Andrea Dovizioso who closed out the top 10.
Out of the places that give direct access to Q2 finished Maverick Viñales (11th), Miguel Oliveira, who led in the early stages with wet tires, who was 13th, and Quartararo’s main rivals in the general, Pecco Bagnaia ( 16th) and Aleix Espargaró (17th).
We will have to wait for a new completely dry session to understand the loss in time that the new chicane represents, which for the moment has slowed down the lap at the Red Bull Ring by almost eight seconds.
Despite the difficult conditions of the session, only Remy Gardner crashed at turn 5, although there were many off-tracks, especially rehearsing braking at the new chicane.
MotoGP FP1 classification:
| Cla | # | Pilot | Motorcycle | laps | Weather | Difference | Interval | Km/h | Top speed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 43 |  Jack Miller |
 |
Ducati | 20 | 1’30.756 | 171,598 | 0 | ||
| 2 | 5 |  Johann Zarco |
 |
Ducati | 21 | 1’31.374 | 0.618 | 0.618 | 170,437 | 0 |
| 3 | 36 |  Joan Mir |
 |
Suzuki | 22 | 1’31.576 | 0.820 | 0.202 | 170.062 | 0 |
| 4 | 89 | Jorge Martin |
 |
Ducati | 18 | 1’31,616 | 0.860 | 0.040 | 169,987 | 0 |
| 5 | 20 | Fabio Quartararo |
 |
Yamaha | 21 | 1’31.773 | 1.017 | 0.157 | 169,696 | 0 |
| 6 | 42 | Alex Rins |
|
Suzuki | 20 | 1’31.875 | 1.119 | 0.102 | 169.508 | 0 |
| 7 | 33 |  Brad Binder |
 |
KTM | 20 | 1’31.913 | 1.157 | 0.038 | 169.438 | 0 |
| 8 | 30 |  Takaaki Nakagami |
 |
Honda | 20 | 1’31,941 | 1.185 | 0.028 | 169,386 | 0 |
| 9 | 23 |  Enea Bastianini |
 |
Ducati | 18 | 1’31.976 | 1,220 | 0.035 | 169.322 | 0 |
| 10 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso |
 |
Yamaha | 20 | 1’32007 | 1.251 | 0.031 | 169,265 | 0 |
| see results | ||||||||||
