Ducati ends Mugello MotoGP Friday fastest with Bagnaia

Ducati MotoGP rider Francesco Bagnaia topped the second practice session for the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello.

But it was KTM rider Miguel Oliveira who headed the timesheets for nearly the whole session, having surpassed Maverick Vinales’s FP1 benchmark early on as he appeared to trial a new KTM chassis.

That initial benchmark, a 1m46.584s, looked finally set to fall with two minutes left on the clock as Vinales’ Yamaha team-mate Fabio Quartararo came through the first two sectors up by three tenths, but the championship leader came up on a gaggle of slow bikes and aborted the lap, barely concealing his frustration.

But just a minute later Alex Rins (Suzuki) did jump ahead of Oliveira, by three and a half tenths, with the other works KTM of Brad Binder slotting into second moments later.

Quartararo dropped in between the two with his next attempt and still had enough time for another go, running 0.016s ahead of Rins after the third sector but ultimately failing to improve on his time.

Instead, it was Bagnaia – down by two hundredths after two sectors – who jumped out ahead to snatch first place from Rins at the death with a 1m46.147s.

Quartararo was shuffled down to fourth, behind Bagnaia and Rins but also his former Petronas SRT Yamaha team-mate Franco Morbidelli. The other factory Yamaha, that of Vinales, was only 17th.

Oliveira was unable to improve on that initial time on a fresh soft rear and was in the end sixth, right behind Binder in what was a much-improved showing for the KTM’s works squad.

LCR man Takaaki Nakagami was the top Honda in seventh, ahead of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, with two Ducatis – Jack Miller’s works machine and Johann Zarco’s Pramac-run Desmosedici – making up the top 10.

Marc Marquez, whose physical fitness is expected to be tested significantly this weekend, was 12th, a tenth down on Suzuki’s reigning champion Joan Mir and 0.013s up on works team-mate Pol Espargaro.

It was another rough showing for home hero Valentino Rossi on what could be his final Italian GP weekend as a MotoGP rider. Rossi rode through the gravel twice at San Donato during FP2, and settled on the 21st spot, ahead of only Tech3 KTM’s Iker Lecuona.

Practice 2 Results