Luca Marini’s Saturday in Austria was all about Sunday gains after a difficult Q1 while Takaaki Nakagami showed his experience and speed, battling through to 15th and ahead of several big names.
Austrian Grand Prix - Sprint |
MotoGP 2026 |
Round 15 |
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Saturday, 19th September 2026
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Austrian Grand Prix, Red Bull Ring - Spielberg
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Marini works for Sunday in Spielberg as Nakagami’s progress steps up
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Luca Marini’s Saturday in Austria was all about Sunday gains after a difficult Q1 while Takaaki Nakagami showed his experience and speed, battling through to 15th and ahead of several big names.
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Saturday in Austria had the Honda HRC Castrol team hard at work, looking to make the most of every opportunity presented to them after a truncated morning practice due to overnight rain. Q1 marked the first obstacle of the day with both Luca Marini and Takaaki Nakagami tackling the 15-minute session on a still-green circuit.
Able to set a best time of 1'29.110 and manage 15th on the grid, Luca Marini faced an uphill battle on the run up the hill to Turn 1 in the Sprint. With this in mind, the Italian and his team decided to focus on better understanding what will be possible during Sunday’s Grand Prix and opted for the medium tyre. A classically strong start from Marini helped him gain early ground before he switched to a more defensive mode. Taking 13th at the line, the Italian has certainly gained information for the feature length race and has some key decisions to make overnight. Marini is confident that Sunday's race could introduce an even more unpredictable GP.
One of the few riders to venture out in the damp morning, Takaaki Nakagami’s progress continued with each and every lap as he closed the distance and went deeper into the field. A best lap of 1’29.442 in Q1 put him 18th on the grid and just 0.3s behind Luca Marini on the other side of the garage. When the lights went out for the 14-lap Sprint, Nakagami immediately locked into an intense fight with Morbidelli and a trio of Yamaha riders before breaking away and trying to close in on Pol Espargaro in the battle of the Development Riders. 15th in the Sprint bodes well for some welcome points in Sunday’s main event.
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Luca Marini 10
Honda HRC Castrol
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“Today was all about testing for tomorrow, I went with the medium rear in the Sprint to understand how it behaves before the long race. It was not easy with the medium and I think a lot of guys who used the soft in the Sprint will have some surprises. Q1 was tricky today and I couldn’t get the same feeling as in practice, it felt like there was less grip overall and I wasn’t able to improve my time in the second half of the lap. But let’s see what we can do on Sunday with this extra information as our pattern this year is always making a step for the long race and as we saw today, this track is very critical and you need to be riding in a perfect way.”
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Takaaki Nakagami 30
Honda HRC Castrol
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"Some positives feelings today in Qualifying and the Sprint, still there’s a lot to improve but step by step progress is being made. Session by session, I am working better with the team and they’re helping me a lot to compare to the other Honda riders. We did a lot of laps during the test before here so my physical condition isn’t perfect and when you need to push to your maximum like in Qualifying or a race, this is when you feel it. Sunday will be a long 28 laps, a lot of tyre management to do. I am enjoying being the factory team and I want to thank them all for their effort."
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