What went on in frantic second Mugello MotoGP practice

MotoGP championship leader Pecco Bagnaia ended Friday practice at Mugello on top, with several big names consigned to contesting the first segment of qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix.

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Key moments:

> Bagnaia and Bezzecchi out front

> Six Ducatis in top 10

> Marquez in Q2 despite crash

> Vinales, Quartararo among those set for Q1

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Bagnaia had been only 16th in the opening session, albeit by virtue of not having run the soft rear tyre – and he was fast once he did bolt it on for the second session, ending up 0.063s clear of Bezzecchi.

His best lap, a 1m45.436s, was just a quarter of a second off the lap record held by Fabio Quartararo.

It was another Ducati-dominated session for most of it, the Bologna marque holding an initial 1-2-3-4-5 and eventually ending up with the top two spots with Bagnaia and his closest championship rival, VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi.

But Alex Rins did fire in a remarkable lap for third place on his LCR-run Honda, and Brad Binder escaped a trip to Q1 at the very last second to place fourth for KTM.

Of the six remaining automatic Q2 spots, four went to Ducatis – the Pramac duo of Jorge Martin and Johann Zarco, and the injured pair of Luca Marini (VR46, coping with thumb ligament damage) and Enea Bastianini (factory Ducati, returning from a long absence with a broken shoulder).

The other riders to secure tickets to Q2 were Honda’s Marc Marquez and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro.

A big mistake from @marcmarquez93! 💥

He's on the fringes of the Q2 places and now has to get back to the pits before time runs out! 😮#ItalianGP 🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/25xYfMbPGo

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) June 9, 2023

Marquez had chosen to follow Maverick Vinales on his first soft-tyre time attack, but fell while chasing after the Aprilia through the Biondetti sequence. Yet he legged it back to the pits and followed Vinales again, this time producing a Q2-worthy laptime.

Meanwhile, Espargaro – suffering from the after-effects of what has now been confirmed as a cycling crash on Thursday – gathered it all together for a last-second attempt to eliminate none other than Vinales from the top 10.

RNF Aprilia rider Raul Fernandez was fifth after the first round of soft-tyre flying laps, but was ultimately relegated to 12th, just missing out on his first-ever Q2 berth.

First-session pace-setter Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) was 13th, and will be one of the high-profile Q1 participants in a list that also includes Jack Miller (KTM) and Quartararo (Yamaha).

Quartararo, second in practice one, seemed to be caught out by late yellow flags caused by Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini Ducati), who had gone to pass Rins at San Donato at the start of a flying lap and crashed – then finding himself openly berated by Rins for the move.

The other crashes in the session came from the usual suspects, meaning the Hondas – with both Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda) and Joan Mir hitting the deck.

Practice 2 Results