Marco Bezzecchi established himself as the man to beat heading into Saturday's all-important qualifying session for the Austrian MotoGP as he paced Friday Practice in Spielberg.

Despite the ever-present threat of the heavens opening during the second-half of the session, lap times came down rapidly in the closing stages with Bezzecchi circulating the Styrian venue quickest of all with a lap recordf-breaking 1m 28.533secs.

Holding onto the top spot at the flag despite his VR46 Ducati coming to a halt soon afterwards with a technical issue, Bezzecchi was run closely by Aprilia's Maverick Vinales, the Spaniard just +0.044s adrift of his rival.

Pecco Bagnaia completed the top three having held down the top spot in the closing stages, with KTM's Brad Binder and FP1 pace setter Johann Zarco booking their place into Q2 comfortably in fourth and fifth.

Zarco's Pramac Ducati team-mate Jorge Martin followed suit in sixth, together with Aleix Espargaro on the second factory Aprilia and Alex Marquez on the Gresini Ducati in eighth.

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After slumping to his worst qualifying result at Silverstone, Fabio Quartararo was back inside Q2 with the ninth best time on the factory Yamaha, while Miguel Oliveira also assured himself of a shot at pole position as the tenth and final inductee.

Missing the cut by +0.026s, Luca Marini will have to go again in Q1, as will Fabio di Giannantonio and Marc Marquez, the latter missing his chance after getting baulked by Pol Espargaro late on. Other high-profile riders to miss out included 2022 Austrian MotoGP pole sitter Enea Bastianini in 16th and Jack Miller in 14th

Austrian MotoGP, Spielberg | Friday Practice Results

Friday | Conditions - Dry, Spots of Rain