The FIM MotoE™ World Championship travelled to Austria this week with the rest of the paddock for the sixth round of the season. After a very unlucky British Grand Prix which saw him crash in both races, Alessandro Zaccone was eager to do well this week, and his teammate Hikari Okubo wanted to do the same.
The day did not start in the best way possible for Japanese Hikari Okubo who suffered a small crash in the first practice early this morning, luckily without any big damage. He was eleventh of P1, but did the job that needed to be done later on in P2, with a fastest lap in 1’39.434 which got him the eighth position in the combined standings, meaning that he qualified directly for the final qualifying session. Feeling at ease and confident on the Red Bull Ring, the Japanese, who is still on the lookout for his first podium of the season, put all the chances on his side today and qualified in P5 (1’39.158, +0.591), a second row start which should allow him to fight for two great results on Saturday, and why not, finally climb on the podium this season.
Alessandro Zaccone completed the first session this morning in P6 with a best lap in 1’40.050, an encouraging result for the rest of the day. As the track got hotter later on, times went down for all riders, including the Italian who registered his fastest lap in 1’39.745, but that was not enough to make it directly to Q2, as he stood eleventh in the combined standings. As it has often been the case this season, the rain was there just in time for the electric series. The drops were small, meaning that Zaccone chose to head to Q1 in slicks, but quickly returned to the pitlane to make the switch to rain tyres. Unfortunately, he lost time, and that meant he only had four laps to convince. His lap in 1’45.097 placed him ninth of Q1, meaning that he will start both electric races from P17 on Saturday, with race 1 scheduled at 12:15 LT, and race 2 at 16:10.
Hiraki Okubo
| Grid Position: 5 | Time: 1'39.158 | Laps: 6 |
"Finally we get a good Friday, because I qualified in P5, on the second row, which I am really happy about. The day did not start so well because I crashed in P1, but my mechanics did a good job to provide me a good bike for the rest of the day. On the dry, I had a good pace and feelings were positive, so I am hoping that we will avoid the rain in both races to stay with the front group, and target the podium.”
Alessandro Zaccone
| Grid Position: 17 | Time: 1'45.097 | Laps: 4 |
"In qualifying, I started with slick tyres, but the track was wet so I made the decision to return to the pitlane to switch to wet tyres. After that, the rain was not so heavy and the track not that wet, and riders in slicks improved. I did not made the right decision, so we will start from the back tomorrow, which is a shame. Let’s try to do our best."
