The qualification for the MotoGP Italian Grand Prix gave us an amazing duel played on the edge of thousandths between the top two contenders for the title, with the Ducatis once again making their mark at Mugello, taking six of the top eight grid positions.
In the end, just 48 thousandths of a second separated Jorge Martin and Pecco Bagnaia, with the Prima Pramac Racing rider setting a new record for the Tuscan up-and-down hill in 1’44″504, thus signing his 16th pole position in the queen class.
The reigning world champion, therefore, will start from second place in this afternoon’s Sprint, but tomorrow he will have to move back to fifth due to the three-place grid penalty he was given for impeding Alex Marquez during the afternoon session of yesterday.
Bagnaia had tried to diversify his strategy, returning to the track alone for the second attempt, but a failure at Bucine prevented him from trying to shave off those few thousandths that already separated him from “Martinator”. And in this case it should be underlined that both set their best times on the first flying lap of Q2.
Completing the front row is an excellent Maverick Vinales, who is the only one who managed to squeeze in among the Ducatis with his Aprilia. Yesterday he said he needed a slipstream to cover the shortcomings of his RS-GP on the long Mugello straight and today he found an ideal one, given that his 1’44″687 arrived in the tail of Bagnaia.
In fourth position there is a Marc Marquez who probably wasted a great opportunity: the Gresini Racing rider, in fact, crashed out at Scarperia when in the first two sectors he had accumulated a margin of over two tenths. Among other things, previously, at the same point there had been a curious episode with Pedro Acosta, when during the out lap he had braked sharply in front of the GasGas Tech3 driver, who had complained quite a bit.
Alongside the eight-time world champion in the second row there will be the other two Ducatis of Enea Bastianini and Franco Morbidelli, who in Q1 had temporarily taken the track record, then finding a nice confirmation in Q2: the first six, in fact, they all lapped under 1’45”.
The only KTM to have reached Q2 in the end was that of Acosta, but the Spanish rookie was unable to get into the first two rows and therefore will have to settle for seventh place on the grid, ahead of the other GP23 of Alex Marquez and the another official Aprilia from Aleix Espargaro.
After yesterday’s great second half, Alex Rins has returned to the ranks a bit with his Yamaha, even if these days a tenth place on the grid, seven tenths from pole is a result that can be welcomed positively by the Iwata manufacturer. The picture of the 12 who took part in Q2 is then completed with the two Trackhouse Racing Aprilias, with Miguel Oliveira preceding his teammate Raul Fernandez, who earned the pass to Q1.
As mentioned, Acosta’s is the only KTM to have achieved Q2. Brad Binder, in fact, was the first of those excluded at the end of Q1, even if by just over a tenth. Unluckier than him is Fabio Di Giannantonio, who was forced to close the throttle after having scored two red helmets in the first two sectors due to the yellow flag caused by Pol Espargaro and therefore will start 14th.
The Spanish rider, engaged as a KTM wild card, lost his rear exiting the Correntaio and slipped, being narrowly avoided by Takaaki Nakagami. “Polyccio” will therefore line up in 21st place, with the Japanese rider from Honda LCR who is instead 23rd.
Among those eliminated is once again Fabio Quartararo, who paid a very high price for those 19 thousandths that yesterday prevented him from gaining a direct pass to Q2. “El Diablo”, therefore, will line up his Yamaha in 15th position.
Also eliminated is Marco Bezzecchi, who will open the sixth row with the second Ducati of the Pertamina Enduro VR46, and in this he will be joined by the two Hondas of Joan Mir and Johann Zarco. With the new aerodynamic package the RC213V seems to be making progress, but the gap remained at over a second even in Q1, although it must be said that Morbidelli set a good time.
The one who continues to really struggle is Luca Marini, who once again closes the group with the second official Honda, also behind Aprilia test rider Lorenzo Savadori, who is instead 22nd. Also worth forgetting, however, is Jack Miller’s qualifying, only 19th with his KTM.
Q2 ranking
Q1 ranking
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