Jorge Martin, who’s leading the championship, got the top spot in qualifying for the Mugello round. He set a new lap record with a time of 1 minute and 44.504 seconds on his first flying lap. Martin might join the factory Ducati team next year. He beat Francesco Bagnaia, who won last year’s Italian GP, by just a tiny margin of 0.043 seconds. But Bagnaia will have to start three places back because he blocked Alex Marquez in practice. Maverick Vinales from Aprilia came in third.
Martin’s teammate, Franco Morbidelli, set a lap record in the Q1 session with a time of 1 minute and 44.726 seconds. But Martin outdid everyone in the Q2 session with his fast time. However, Bagnaia was also quick and almost caught up with Martin but missed it by a hair’s breadth. Bagnaia wasn’t happy about the penalty and called it a “clown penalty.”
Vinales also did well but couldn’t beat Martin’s time in the final sector. Marc Marquez, on a Gresini Ducati, was doing great too but crashed just before the end. Despite the crash, he secured the fourth position. Enea Bastianini was fifth, followed by Morbidelli. Pedro Acosta from Tech3 was seventh, and Alex Marquez from Gresini Ducati was eighth. Aleix Espargaro from Aprilia and Alex Rins from Yamaha completed the top ten.
Brad Binder from KTM couldn’t make it to Q2 and will start 13th. Fabio Quartararo from Yamaha also struggled and will start 15th. Joan Mir was the fastest Honda rider in 17th place.
