Bagnaia snatches top spot in Friday practice at Mugello
The first day of official MotoGP action at Mugello since 2019 has ended with Ducati's Francesco Bagnaia snatching the top spot on his final lap of FP2.
The Ducati star, currently just one point from title leader Fabio Quartararo, improved from sixth in the morning session to finish just 0.071s clear of Suzuki's Alex Rins.
Petronas rider Franco Morbidelli overcame a 20km/h top speed deficit on his A-Spec Yamaha to claim a strong third place, just ahead of Quartararo, who had looked on-course to go fastest with three minutes remaining only to hit traffic – much to his obvious anger.
KTM's Miguel Oliveira, using a new chassis, led for most of the afternoon but couldn't improve on new hard front and soft rear tyres and was eventually demoted to sixth, directly behind team-mate Brad Binder.
Quartararo's Monster Yamaha team-mate and morning leader Maverick Vinales had an off-track moment at the end of the session and was left down in 17th as a result. However, the Spaniard's FP1 time put him eighth overall on the combined timesheets.
Mugello legend Rossi had an even tougher time in FP2, running through the gravel at turn 1 twice and being ranked 22nd and last, before gaining just one place in the closing stages on his Petronas Yamaha. However, Rossi was still within 1.6s of Bagnaia.
All four Yamaha riders have a front holeshot device available for the first time this weekend.
Behind Oliveira, Takaaki Nakagami (top Honda), Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro (riding for the first time since arm pump surgery), double 2021 race winner Jack Miller (Ducati) and Pramac's Johann Zarco (the only rider other than Vinales to go slower this afternoon) completed the top ten.
The fast Mugello corners seemed to torment Marc Marquez's weak right shoulder and he was left towards the tail of the timesheets for much of the session, visibly wrestling to keep his RC213V on-line.
However, a late charge put Marquez into twelfth place, just ahead of Repsol Honda team-mate Pol Espargaro.
While hard tyres made an appearance this afternoon, most preferred the mediums before fitting new softs for the time attacks.
But the likes of Jack Miller and Pramac stand-in Michele Pirro did the opposite, putting in lots of laps on the soft rear then using the medium to set their best times at the end of the session.
The all time MotoGP lap record of 362.4km/h (225.2mph), set by Pramac Ducati's Johann Zarco in Qatar FP4, remained unbeaten with the best speed of the day a 357.6km/h by Pirro, a new Mugello record.
But Ducati certainly didn't have it all their own way on the speed charts with the KTM duo of Oliveira and Binder next fastest in FP2, with the Suzuki of Alex Rins best of the rest in seventh through the speed trap.
An interested trackside observer today was former event winner Andrea Dovizioso, who has agreed to a series of further tests with Aprilia this year.
The fine weather is expected to continue at Mugello until race day morning, when there is a threat of rain.
