Weather conditions played a dramatic role on the opening day of practice for the Austrian Grand Prix with Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider Alex Marquez in fourth place ahead of teammate Joan Mir who was 15th overall.

Summer sun and warm conditions for FP1 in the morning were blown away in the afternoon by constant rain delivering a water-logged Spielberg circuit for FP2.

The combined classification was clearly decided by the ideal conditions of FP1.

In the morning session Marquez was comfortable on the pace taking no risks while working with his team to evaluate tyre options for Sunday’s race and his fast lap of 1’30.568 was just 0.12s off the top time.

Marquez was unconcerned to be 17th in the wet afternoon session in difficult conditions.

Mir remained positive despite never challenging for the top positions on the timesheet with the young Spaniard confident his potential is much better than his 15th place in FP1 and 13th in a wet FP2.

Tomorrow’s FP3 session is scheduled for 10:55am with qualifying at 3:05pm.

Alex Marquez: 4th – 1’30.568

“Overall a positive day especially in the morning session when we tried both tyre options to be clear for the race with a really solid base set-up. I was able to push and felt comfortable. With a rain set-up for FP2 all I did was check that everything was working well and then we were not on track when the rain eased so we need to pay attention to this.”

Joan Mir: 15th – 1’30.920

“The conclusion from today is quite positive because I didn’t have a good feeling in FP1 but the team understands why so we can prepare for tomorrow. In the rain conditions my position in FP2 does not reflect my potential on a wet track and I am comfortable in those conditions but I prefer that tomorrow and Sunday will be dry.”