Bagnaia stamps authority on Friday as Rins impresses and Acosta crashes

After an intense hour of Practice at the Gran Premio d’Italia Brembo, the important Q2 spots have been decided, with Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) returning to the top spot and stamping his authority at the end of Friday. It was a sensational lap by Bagnaia in the final five minutes to cross the line and set a magnificent 1:44.938. Alex Rins (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™ Team) continued to make a statement after finishing Friday in second and ahead of Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GASGAS Tech3), who made a brilliant recovery after a crash at turn 13 - his second crash of the weekend.

There was high drama throughout the session including Acosta’s crash with the #31 forced to get a lift back to the paddock for his spare bike. Meanwhile, at the top spot heading into the final minutes was Viñales, however, as the clock ticked down it soon became a frantic end to the session as new tyres were used. Red sectors were everywhere with Bagnaia soon flying to the top of the timesheets – becoming the first rider of the weekend to enter the 1:44 bracket with nobody able to match the #1's pace as the clock hit zero. However, after the session, Bagnaia would be handed a three-place grid penalty after a Practice incident with Alex Marquez.

Further back in fourth after a brilliant end to Friday’s proceedings was Miguel Oliveira (Trackhouse Racing), who improved late in the session on his 20^th lap. Oliveira ended the day as the top Aprilia and finished ahead of Marc Marquez (Gresini Racing MotoGP™) who has found pace on a Friday and will have direct entry to Q2 for the first time since the Spanish GP.

After a tough start to the day, Enea Bastianini (Ducati Lenovo Team) found pace with a new soft rear tyre to jump to sixth on the timesheets. Bastianini ended what was a good day for the factory Ducati team and finished ahead of Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing). The #89 was the only Pramac machine inside the top 10 with Franco Morbidelli down in 15^th after day one.

Alex Marquez (Gresini Racing MotoGP™) also claimed his first direct entry to Q2 since the Spanish GP – capping off an excellent Friday for Gresini. Behind the #73 was Viñales, who dropped down to ninth ahead of Aprilia Racing teammate Aleix Espargaro, who took the final spot inside the vital top 10 for Saturday's qualifying.

On Saturday, Q1 is set to be an action-packed session with all three Red Bull KTM Factory Racing machines forced to fight for the top two positions. Joining the KTMs in Q1 will be Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™ Team’s Fabio Quartararo, who missed out by a mere 0.019s after a mistake on his final flying lap. Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team’s Marco Bezzecchi and last year’s polesitter Fabio Di Giannantonio will also fight in Q1, making MotoGP™ as unpredictable as ever.

However, KTM made other headlines at Mugello, with Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) equalling the current top-speed record of 366.1 km/h during Practice. Check out the full outright top-speed list here:

The MotoGP™ field will return to track on Saturday at 10:10 local time (UTC +2) for Free Practice 2 right before qualifying gets underway at 10:50 local time, so make sure you don’t miss any of the action on motogp.com!

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