Miller heads Dovizioso in Styrian MotoGP FP1 at the Red Bull Ring

Jack Miller started the inaugural Styrian MotoGP event at the Red Bull Ring on top with a late flyer to deny Andrea Dovizioso by just 0.004.

The Aussie racer was a permanent fixture within the top five across the 45 minute test, sitting fourth on the timesheets early on a couple tenths down on then-leader Takaaki Nakagami.

The Pramac man then came to the fore as several riders decided to head out in the closing minutes for a sequence of qualifying laps, Joan Mir the first to post a time underneath that of Nakagami-the Suzuki ace firing in a 1:24.035 to go P1.

Miguel Oliveira then became the first man to get into the 1:23s this weekend as he banged in a 1:23.898, though he was swiftly demoted to second by Miller’s ultimately session leading effort of 1:23.859.

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Dovizioso looked good to deny Miller the top spot on his session-closing gambit, but missed out by just 0.004 to end the session as runner-up.

Oliveira slipped to third by sessions end, while Nakagami and Mir completed a top five covered by just 0.102.

Franco Morbidelli claimed the title of fastest Yamaha in FP1, the Petronas SRT rider bouncing back from his violent Austrian GP smash just a week ago to bag sixth in FP1 ahead of Brad Binder’s KTM.

Iker lecuona ensured that both Tech 3 KTM machines appeared within the top ten at the manufacturer’s second home event, while title contenders Maverick Vinales and Fabio Quartararo closed out the top ten.

Pol Espargaro had a muted opening practice with the 11^th quickest time, just ahead of Michele Pirro-the Italian starting his second weekend as stand-in for the injured Francesco Bagnaia at Pramac.

Bradley Smith enjoyed a relatively strong opening practice on his Aprilia with the 14^th fastest effort-eight tenths down on Miller’s benchmark-ahead of Alex Rins’ factory Suzuki down in 15^th.

Valentino Rossi had a low key FP1 with a 17^th best time as reward for his efforts, just behind Alex Marquez on the fastest of the official Honda machines.  

Avintia Racing’s Esteve Rabat was the only man to crash out during the session, the Spaniard tucking the front of his Desmosedici into Turn 4 in the dying moments of FP1, ending his running in the gravel.

Rabat’s team-mate Johann Zarco meanwhile will miss the entirety of Friday running following his diagnosis of a fractured scaphoid following his scary Austrian GP crash with Franco Morbidelli last weekend.

The Frenchman underwent surgery for the injury on Wednesday, meaning he has to wait until Friday afternoon to undergo a further medical examination to ascertain whether he will be able to join the field on Saturday morning.