Marco Bezzecchi puts Aprilia fastest in Italian MotoGP warm-up
Marco Bezzecchi outpaces Marc Marquez to lead warm-up for the Italian MotoGP, but which tyres will they chose?
Marco Bezzecchi edged out Sprint winner Marc Marquez to put Aprilia on top of the timesheets during morning warm-up for the Italian MotoGP.
Bezzecchi, who rode from tenth to sixth despite losing two wings during contact at the start of the Sprint, moved ahead of the factory Ducati rider by 0.094s on his penultimate lap of the ten-minute session.
Like most of the field, the Italian ran used medium front and soft rear tyres for warm-up.
Despite his starting position, Silverstone winner Bezzecchi could be a podium threat, having set a similar pace to the Marquez brothers on very old soft rear rubber during Saturday’s final practice.
The medium front and soft rear tyres were picked by almost all riders in the Saturday Sprint and last year’s Italian Grand Prix.
However, Michelin believes the revised hard (tried by only Pedro Acosta, Brad Binder and Jack Miller in the Sprint) is also viable for the front, with the medium or soft possible for the rear.
The weather is expected to be cooler than Saturday, nudging riders towards the soft rear.
"Looks like everybody is going towards the soft tyre, because we saw in warm-up that nearly everyone went with the soft rear," said Alex Marquez, runner-up to Marc in the Sprint. "We'll check the data now."
Either way, don’t expect the Yamahas to race the hard front after Miller ‘limped’ home in 16th.
“With Jack, we tried the hard front tyre to see if it could be an option for tomorrow‘s race, but it was a real struggle. Now we know what not to choose,” Pramac team director Gino Borsoi said on Saturday.
Miller said: “I really believed the heat would make the hard tyre a good option - like it did in Thailand - but I just couldn‘t get it to work.
“From Turn 4 to 5, every time I released the brakes I lost the front. The Arrabbiata corners were a nightmare, and the last turn was terrible too. I was just limping through.
“But at least now we know. If I hadn‘t tried the hard tyre today, I might still be thinking about it for tomorrow. Better to have that info now.”
However, after chatter issues on the soft rear, the Yamahas could be among the minority on the medium rear this afternoon.
The factory KTMs didn’t gather any race data on the hard front tyre with both riders crashing on the opening lap, Binder taken down by contact at Turn 1 and Acosta losing the front soon after.
However, Acosta didn’t feel the hard tyre had been a mistake: “I still think the hard tyre choice was the best decision but I struggled to stop the bike.
“I lost the front but I wasn’t forcing it. A mistake. It is what it is. I think our potential today was to fight [for the podium]. From 3rd to 5th could be our possibilities tomorrow.”
Marc Marquez will be aiming for a symbolic 93rd win of his grand prix career this afternoon, and first at Mugello since 2014.
The 23-lap Italian MotoGP, which has been won by home star Bagnaia for the past three years, starts at 2pm local time.
Bagnaia was only 19th fastest in warm-up, almost one-second behind Bezzecchi, despite using medium-soft tyres with the same number of laps as the Aprilia rider.
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Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
