Italian Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia set the fastest combined time in the two qualifying sessions of the Italian MotoGP Grand Prix, which took place on Friday at the Mugello circuit. Despite his foot injury suffered in the previous race, the reigning world champion was fastest in the second session after facing some difficulties in the first.
Bagnaia, who has a limp when walking and uses a crutch to avoid aggravating his injury, beat compatriot Marco Bezzechi of Ducati-VR46, who is second in the world championship, by six hundredths of a second. Third place went to Honda-LCR’s Álex Rins of Spain, eight hundredths behind Bagnaia.
South African Brad Binder of KTM, Spaniard Jorge Martin of Ducati-Pramac, Italian Enea Bastianini of Ducati, Frenchman Johann Zarco of Ducati-Pramac, Spaniards Marc Marquez of Honda and Aleix Espargaro of Aprilia, and Italian Luca Marini of Ducati-VR46 completed the top 10 and qualified for Q2, where the starting grid will be decided.
Frenchman Fabio Quartararo, World Champion in 2021, again showed that his bike is not working as well as others and will have to go through the repechage after achieving only the sixteenth fastest time.
In summary, the combined standings of the two qualifying sessions of the Italian MotoGP Grand Prix show Bagnaia in first place, followed by Bezzechi at just 0.063 seconds and Rins at 0.081 seconds. Quartararo is in sixteenth position, 0.868 seconds behind the leader.