Savadori tops first ever MotoGP session in rain affected Styrian FP2

A rain affected free practice two for the Styrian MotoGP produced an unlikely name at the top of the leaderboard, as Aprilia’ Lorenzo Savadori was fastest from Johann Zarco. 

The Italian took over from Zarco with under five minutes to go and was able to hold on despite late efforts from the Pramac man, Joan Mir and Marc Marquez.  

While many of the riders chose to stay in pit lane during the first few minutes, Tech 3 KTM riders Iker Lecuona and Danilo Petrucci were first to venture out, before second placed in the championship Zarco followed suit. 

After just five minutes on track, Lecuona crashed at turn one - his second of the day. However, the Spaniard quickly re-joined before going fastest from Pol Espargaro and team-mate Petrucci. 

As the rain eased up, tricky condition specialists Jack Miller and Marc Marquez went second and third. That was until Marquez went a full second clear of Lecuona two laps later.

With 17 minutes remaining, Lecuona and Mir then got within half a second of Marquez, while Zarco moved up to fourth place. 

Zarco then went to the top of the leaderboard inside the final ten minutes as a dry line began to appear. However, the Frenchman was then up seeded by fellow Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia. 

The Italian only led for a matter of seconds before Savadori put in an impressive lap with just under five minutes to go - good enough to go one second clear of Bagnaia.

Miller was unsurprisingly the first rider to try slick tyres but conditions didn’t improve enough for the Australian to go faster, as he ultimately finished the session 13th.  

Championship leader Fabio Quartararo struggled to get close to the top ten throughout the session and eventually finished 15th.    

Zarco, Mir and Marquez all had red sectors during their final laps, but Savadori’s time of 1:31.304s was good enough to see him hold on.

Alex Marquez and Valentino Rossi both found turn four tricky to manage as they ran through the gravel trap, while Brad Binder also ran off track at turn three late on.