MotoGP riders wary of tricky circuit in Austria

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Bengaluru, August 11: As MotoGP riders get ready for the 11th round at Red Bull Ring circuit in Spielberg, Austria, most of them were wary about the tricky circuit as was evident in the pre-event press conference.

Championship leader Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team), Maverick Vinales (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), team-mate Valentino Rossi, Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) and Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda), with Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) joining the line-up for the first time this year as the Austrian factory prepare for their first home race.

With the weather forecast looking a little off kilter for the first day or two of track action, that was a point of discussion amongst the riders - as well as the outcome of the post-Czech GP test at Brno. And then, the picturesque setting and the high-speed, hard braking and hard acceleration of the track - very different to Brno.

Reigning champion Marquez was first to speak - feeling good about the weekend and quietly optimistic it will be an improvement on 2016:

"We've come straight from Brno to here, and still the good feeling is there with a good feeling in the Monday test. We'll see, last year it was a weekend where we struggled more, but last year we didn't test here, and this year we've improved our acceleration a bit. Looks like the weather will be unstable so it will be important to always make the right steps, just trying to get the best setup for Sunday. The Red Bull Ring is a really special circuit, hard braking and acceleration. We'll see if this year we can find the right balance. Last year I was ok but in the race the tyre dropped a lot, but this year we think we can be more competitive. This year we'll see if we can fight for the podium, or top five or the win - you never know. In the test we found some things, I was riding comfortably and I've improved the front feeling a bit so we'll see."

Meanwhile, key rival Vinales was back on the podium for the first time in a while last time out - and equally feels positive on the approach to the Austrian GP. But after grabbing headlines on Monday in the Brno test with a new aero fairing, it won't be back out on track at Spielberg for the number 25:

"I really like the track, last year was really good and it's a track where I was close to the top. I'm motivated for this weekend and after the podium I feel good again. In the test I felt great on the bike again and had a great rhythm, especially in the latter half of the day. We won't use the new fairing this weekend because we didn't find anything really positive, we want to test it again on another track. But we have ones we used in Le Mans so for sure we're ready to test them and see if we can improve the acceleration here. If it's going to be unstable weather, it will be important to be in Q2. I'm ready to go!"

Top in that much-discussed Brno test was Rossi, who says they found some progress.

The rider from Tavullia also gave a good insight into the Red Bull Ring, citing its average speed and the concentration required on tracks like it.

"Brno was a good weekend for me with the speed, and the test on Monday was good. We tried some quite good things, some things were the same and at the end I finished with more or less the same laptime I did on Saturday. We think here isn't the perfect track for the type of fairing we tested at Brno but we'll check during the weekend the best plan for the race on Sunday. When you ride this track, it's a bit different compared to the others - it's very, very fast, the average speed is incredible and there aren't a lot of corners so you have to concentrate on every meter, and braking is so important. It's a fun track, it looks like the weather won't be fantastic this weekend but we'll try and be ready."