Francesco Bagnaia scorched to pole position for the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello by just 0.078s, despite having a run-in with Honda’s Marc Marquez towards the end of the session.
The heavy clouds that surrounded the Tuscan hills around the Mugello circuit ultimately held off any risk of precipitation ahead of the all-important Q2 test, though Bagnaia was immediately on the back foot having run wide at Turn 1 on his opening gambit – his error leaving him only 11th after his rivals had recorded their respective efforts.
Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin was the main beneficiary as he scored provisional pole by fractions over title contender Marco Bezzecchi and Marquez, though keen to make up for his mistake Bagnaia quickly headed back out to take advantage of a clean track for his second run.
His opening lap was immediately compromised though as he was put off by Marquez exiting pit-lane, a fuming Bagnaia going on to remonstrate with the Spaniard and block him over the rest of the lap before setting up for one final push – this time with Marquez firmly in tow.
A lightning-quick first sector set him up well for a possible pole, though Marquez rode through the danger barrier to close right to the rear of the Italian across the second half-of-the lap to snatch back the initiative – though Ducati barrier and a stunning final corner ultimately allowed Bagnaia to take the chequered flag 0.078s faster than Marquez to move himself to the top of the times.
Bagnaia’s laptime of 1:44.855s headed the previous lap record – set by Fabio Quartararo back in 2021 – by a commanding 0.332s, an effort that was enough to keep him ahead of the rest in the end as improvements were few-and-far between over the final couple minutes.
Marquez held onto second just ahead of Alex Marquez, who did well to come from battling in Q1 to secure the final spot on the front row.
Jack Miller shadowed his fellow Q1-graduate Marquez to claim fourth for KTM ahead of Martin, while Bezzecchi could only take sixth after failing to improve late on.
Aleix Espargaro was seventh for Aprilia ahead of Johann Zarco’s Pramac Ducati and Friday star Alex Rins for LCR Honda, while Brad Binder closed out the top ten despite failing to set a lap on his second run after crashing at Turn 11.
Luca Marini and the still-injured Enea Bastianini completed the top 12, with Maverick Vinales the first to miss out on a pole shootout passage in 13th.
Yamaha duo Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo also failed to advance as the Japanese marque’s woes continued, the pairing set to start Saturday’s sprint race as well as Sunday’s full-length encounter from 14th and 15th respectively.
Ducati test rider Michele Pirro will start his first wildcard outing of the season from 17th just ahead of the returning Miguel Oliveira, while Raul Fernandez saw an encouraging Friday come to nought after crashing mid-way through Q1 – limiting him to a 20th position start ahead of Le Mans star Augusto Fernandez.
