Moto GP has shown time and again the closest racing action. And this time around for the Austrian GP, we fans are expecting nothing less. What are the news since the last time we went racing and who are the favourites for this week, read it all in the weekend preview from DRC.
Title fight: Bagnaia’s turn to fight
At the start of the British GP last time around, Bagnaia was leading the championship by 10 points over Martin. However, as we came out of Britain, Martin was back at the top of the leaderboard.
Overall, Martin looked like the better rider of the two that weekend. However, Bagnaia is no slouch. With Martin having only a marginal difference of 3 points to Bagnaia, the championship is highly volatile. Bagnaia has had massive success at this track. From winning both Sprint and the Race last year, this track is considered strong for the World Champion. A double win at the Ring could very well mean we could be watching a different championship leader yet again, come the end of the weekend.
The other protagonist in the Championship has also changed after British GP. Enea Bastianini has had an absolute spectacular run of performance at the British GP.
After trailing Marquez for P3 by 11 points, Bastianini put up a fight and now sits 13 points ahead of Marc. This makes him just 49 points afar from the table-topper Martin. This difference might look huge but when a total of 37 points are on offer every race weekend, Bastianini is very well into the title contention.
KTM, Honda and Aprilia debut a ‘Wildcard’ entry
In a bid to gather more data, the teams of KTM, Honda and Aprilia have decided to debut their test riders this weekend.
KTM have won twice around this venue. Hence, coming into this weekend, they have a lot to do to put up a show for their home fans. Following this, they have decided to debut Pol Espargaro as a wildcard entry for Redbull KTM Factory Racing. The team has had a fantastic roster of drivers, as we saw at the last race when Brad Binder and Pedro Acosta had a close battle.
Click here to read the review from the last round.
Hence, KTM Factory racing will be looking to gather more data to put together the final pieces for their development.
Aprilia Racing are debuting Lorenzo Savadori, their test rider, this weekend with a lab bike.
After getting pole, Aprilia Racing rider Aleix Espargaro had to settle for a Sprint podium and P6 in race. And he was the better of the two riders. Aprilia hasn’t had a good result in Spielberg as of yet. The best result the Noale outfit has managed here is a P6. Hence, a good haul of points or a pole position will be huge.
The Honda team is another outfit that is deploying a wildcard this weekend. Their test rider Stefan Bradl will be out with the HRC test team bike.
With Luca Marini and Joan Mir confirmed as riders of the factory team, their pairing remains unchanged. It’s their satellite team that is expected to drop the news this weekend. In an interview to DAZN, LCR Honda’s Team Principal, Lucio Cecchinello has revealed that Moto2’s Ai Ogura, Somkiat Chantra and their current rider Takaaki Nakagami are the names that are being looked at. He even went as far as confirming that an announcement could be made by this weekend.
Read the full report here.
Track Information
The track in use this weekend will be the famous Redbull Ring. This track consists of 10 turns, with a stop-go style, different to the usual fast and flowing tracks of Moto GP.
When and Where to watch
All the sessions will be streamed on JioCinema (Web Broadcast) and Eurosport (TV coverage).
The schedule is as follows:
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One reply on “Moto GP 2024: Paddock arrives at Redbull Ring for the Austrian GP”
[…] The Red Bull Ring in the Austrian mountains was the stage to the 11th Round of the 2024 FIM MotoGP world championship. Read about it all in DRC’s weekend Review for the 2024 MotoGP Austrian Grand Prix. Read the weekend preview here . […]