Rivacold Snipers Team's Tony Arbolino remains at the top of the Moto3™ timesheets at the close of the opening day of the myWorld Austrian Grand Prix, thanks to the Italian's 1:36.550 set in Friday morning's FP1 session. Petronas Sprinta Racing's John McPhee sits second overall, three tenths adrift of Arbolino, again thanks to his FP1 lap but the Scot also topped the rain-affected FP2 session.
With 15 minutes remaining of the session, the forecasted rain finally arrived at the Red Bull Ring and consequently prevented anybody from improving. Riders headed back out on track for the closing stages with the rain only seemingly quite light at the time but an extremely localised downpour at Turn 3 halted those efforts.
Dry, dry, dry...WET!!! ????️
— MotoGP™???? (@MotoGP) August 14, 2020
A downpour has hit Turn 3, and only Turn 3! ????#AustrianGP ???????? pic.twitter.com/EnmVGt2aNH
The only two men that did improve in the opening part of the session, and cement a place inside the top 14 as a result, were Kömmerling Gresini Moto3's Gabriel Rodrigo and race winner last time out in Brno, Leopard Racing's Dennis Foggia; the pair sitting eighth and twelfth respectively.
Overall though, it's Arbolino on top at the end of Day 1, with McPhee and Jaume Masia (Leopard Racing) his closest competitors. SKY Racing Team VR46's Celestino Vietti and SIC58 Squadra Corse's Niccolo Antonelli are both half a second adrift of their compatriot in fourth and fifth place.
Raul Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo) suffered a gentle off at Turn 3 late in FP1 but sits sixth on the timesheets, only 0.001 of a second ahead of his teammate Kaito Toba in seventh. Rodrigo found a further half a second on half a second following a crash this morning to jump inside the top ten to eighth, before Andrea Migno (SKY Racing Team VR46) and World Championship leader Albert Arenas (Valresa Aspar Team) complete the top ten.
Combined top 10:
1. Tony Arbolino (Rivacold Snipers Team) – 1:36.550
2. John McPhee (Petronas Sprinta Racing) + 0.291
3. Jaume Masia (Leopard Racing) + 0.366
4. Celestino Vietti (SKY Racing Team VR46) + 0.489
5. Niccolo Antonelli (SIC58 Squadra Corse) + 0.507
6. Raul Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo) + 0.516
7. Kaito Toba (Red Bull KTM Ajo) + 0.517
8. Gabriel Rodrigo (Kömmerling Gresini Moto3) + 0.529
9. Andrea Migno (SKY Racing Team VR46) + 0.557
10. Albert Arenas (Valresa Aspar Team) + 0.579