Marc Marquez beats Francesco Bagnaia by 0.059s margin to MotoGP pole in Italian GP, as Alex Marquez rounded a close Top 3.
Q1:
The first part in MotoGP qualifying at Mugello saw Trackhouse Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez lead the charge with a 1m45.158s lap ahead of Gresini Ducati’s Fermin Aldeguer in the Top 2 early on, as LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco was third from Tech 3 KTM’s Enea Bastianini and KTM’s Brad Binder.
Trackhouse’s Ai Ogura didn’t set a lap time in the first run upon his return from injury. It was freak delay for Fernandez for his second run when a tyre warmer stuck to his front tyre. The mechanics had to pull it off after few seconds of aggressive removing but he was last out by then.
The order changed hands at the front after Aldeguer took charge after his 1m44.894s lap to make it into Q2, as a late push lap from Fernandez denied Pramac Yamaha’s Jack Miller a chance to make it in by 0.014s margin. The Australia will start 13th from Zarco and Binder in the Top 15.
Bastianini was 16th ahead of Pramac’s Miguel Oliveira, as the pair of Hondas of Joan Mir and Takaaki Nakagami slotted in 18th and 19th. Aprilia’s test rider Lorenzo Savadori was 20th ahead of returning Ogura and LCR’s Somkiat Chantra.
Q2:
The second part in MotoGP qualifying saw Ducati’s Marc Marquez set the tone with a 1m44.500s lap ahead of VR46 Ducati’s Franco Morbidelli and Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo in the Top 3, with the Frenchman in action despite a hospital visit due to a fall on Friday in practice.
Both Morbidelli and Quartararo dropped one place each after out of sequence run from Ducati’s Franceso Bagnaia, who slotted in second after finishing only 0.048s behind M Marquez. Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi was fifth, as both Aldeguer and Fernandez opted for one run strategy.
Things got close in the second run between four riders. It was Quartararo to go on top initially, but Bagnaia came back at him to get himself on top. Gresini’s Alex Marquez slotted in second to drop Quartararo to third, but M Marquez took top spot with a 1m44.169s lap.
He was quicker by just 0.059s to take MotoGP pole in Italian GP ahead of Bagnaia, who managed to stay ahead of A Marquez by just the 0.014s margin – where the Top 3 were covered by 0.083s margin. Quartararo was fourth from Tech 3’s Maverick Vinales after his late push lap.
Morbidelli could only manage sixth from teammate Fabio di Giannantonio, as KTM’s Pedro Acosta was eighth ahead of Yamaha’s Alex Rins, who was under investigation alongside M Marquez for impeding. Bezzecchi was 10th in the end from Fernandez and Aldeguer in the Top 12.
Result: https://x.com/MotoGP/status/1936359641367093283
