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Spielberg, Aug 14 (IANS) Championship leader Fabio Quartararo holds a 17-point advantage over nearest rival Maverick Vinales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) as the Motorrad Grand Prix is set to take centrestage with prediction of rain adding to the drama. Quartararo is one of the riders who is yet to partake in a wet MotoGP race.
"Honestly, I arrived here on Monday and when we looked at the forecast and it says it's raining every day," said the Frenchman. "But really it's for about an hour, today it was predicted much earlier. It looks like it'll rain on Friday and Saturday and on Sunday, we will do our best in every condition. But it's true that it's not easy to front a GP in these conditions."
The weather is set to be unpredictable at the Red Bull Ring this weekend, and so is track action. Both topics were discussed in the pre-event press conference where Championship leader Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) was joined by Czech GP race winner Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha SRT), Johann Zarco (Esponsorama Racing), Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) and Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Tech 3) to preview the weekend ahead.
The Austrian mountains notoriously throw up some surprises with the weather and heading into home territory, Binder is relishing the chance to really dip his toe in the water on a MotoGP bike for pretty much the first time. KTM's first of two home races could be in the wet, but before last week's heroics, Pol Espargaro earned their only premier class trophy in the sodden 2018 Valencia GP. So they have pedigree when the heavens open.
"I did a couple of laps around Jerez at the end of last year but at that stage, I was still not sure how things go on a MotoGP bike. It will be super cool to try out the rain conditions again, I'm looking forward to it strangely enough," commented the South African, who is hoping he can give KTM another memorable weekend.
All the action from the grand prix will stream live on Discovery Plus on Saturday and Sunday while Eurosport and Eurosport HD will live telecast on the two days.
--IANS
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