Practice report

Italian MotoGP: Bagnaia fastest from Rins in FP2 at Mugello

Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia topped a tight second practice for the Italian Grand Prix, 0.071 seconds clear of Suzuki’s Alex Rins as FP1 pacesetter Maverick Vinales was 17th.

KTM’s Miguel Oliveira set the early pace at the start of FP2 with a 1m47.185s before setting the best lap of the day at that point with a 1m46.584s to go top of the combined times.

After a tough start to the 2021 campaign, KTM has come to Mugello armed with a new chassis for its factory riders first tested at the post-race Jerez test.

Oliveira’s advantage at the head of the individual FP2 timesheet was cut to 0.064 seconds by Ducati’s Bagnaia, though major lap time improvements were few and far between for much of the session as the field focused on race running.

As the session entered its closing stages the timing screen began to light up, though heavy traffic forced the likes of Fabio Quartararo, Vinales and Joan Mir to abort laps.

Rins had no such problems with just over a minute remaining to go fastest of all with a 1m46.218s, though he wouldn’t hold top spot for long.

A late improvement for Bagnaia on the factory Ducati of 1m46.147s shot him up the order to end the day fastest ahead of Rins.

Alex Rins, Team Suzuki MotoGP

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Franco Morbidelli – despite riding a Petronas SRT M1 almost 20km/h down on power on the straight – leaped up to third at the end with a 1m46.331s, pushing Quartararo down to fourth.

KTM’s upturn in form carried over into the latter stages of FP2, with Brad Binder improving to fifth at the end ahead of team-mate Oliveira.

Takaaki Nakagami was the top Honda runner in seventh on his LCR machine, with Aleix Espargaro eight on the Aprilia ahead of Ducati pair Jack Miller and Pramac’s Johann Zarco.

Mir ended up 0.7s off the pace down in 11th ahead of the works Honda pair of Marc Marquez and Pol Espargaro.

A late mistake at the fast Turn 9 right-hander at Arrabbiata 2 for Vinales meant he couldn’t improve on 17th in the standings in FP2.

However, his 1m46.593s from FP1 was good enough to keep him eighth on the combined times and occupying a provisional Q2 spot moving into Saturday.

Valentino Rossi’s homecoming has so far been a miserable affair, the SRT rider running off at San Donato on two occasions in FP2 on his way to 21st and 1.5s off the pace.

Only Tech3’s Iker Lecuona was slower than Rossi after Friday’s running.

MotoGP Italian GP - FP2 results

Cla	Rider	Bike	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati	19	1'46.147
2	Alex Rins	Suzuki	19	1'46.218	0.071
3	Franco Morbidelli	Yamaha	16	1'46.331	0.184
4	Fabio Quartararo	Yamaha	18	1'46.372	0.225
5	Brad Binder	KTM	19	1'46.436	0.289
6	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	18	1'46.584	0.437
7	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	19	1'46.593	0.446
8	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	15	1'46.655	0.508
9	Jack Miller	Ducati	18	1'46.688	0.541
10	Johann Zarco	Ducati	17	1'46.840	0.693
11	Joan Mir	Suzuki	18	1'46.847	0.700
12	Marc Marquez	Honda	17	1'46.973	0.826
13	Pol Espargaro	Honda	19	1'46.986	0.839
14	Michele Pirro	Ducati	17	1'47.107	0.960
15	Danilo Petrucci	KTM	17	1'47.129	0.982
16	Luca Marini	Ducati	18	1'47.154	1.007
17	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	21	1'47.195	1.048
18	Alex Marquez	Honda	19	1'47.326	1.179
19	Enea Bastianini	Ducati	16	1'47.480	1.333
20	Lorenzo Savadori	Aprilia	15	1'47.668	1.521
21	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	20	1'47.719	1.572
22	Iker Lecuona	KTM	16	1'47.792	1.645
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