MotoGP Race And Practice Results

Between the changing weather and the surprise Repsol Honda press conference, a slight delay to proceedings led to a shortened five-lap sprint in the MotoE class. Light drizzle on the grid meant that the race was declared wet, but rain stayed away and allowed riders to put on a show on slicks around Mugello. Kevin Zannoni made a solid start to rob poleman Dominique Aegerter into turn one and the Swiss rider was immediately under threat from Matteo Ferrari and Niccolo Canepa. Despite dropping to fourth after the first few turns, Aegerter was quick to retaliate and attacked the trio ahead at Scarperia, to end the opening lap back into the lead. After losing a mudguard in the early shenanigans, Eric Granado was also on a charge and was challenging the poleman for the lead on lap two, with Ferrari in tow, while Zannoni dropped out of contention, at the bottom of the top 10, and struggled to return to the front.

Aegerter resumed control of the sizeable leading group one lap later, at his favourite turn 10, but then Ferrari threw his hat into the ring at turn one to lead next time around from Granado, while Marc Alcoba and Andrea Mantovani suddenly snuck ahead of Aegerter. Not concerned in the slightest, Aegerter started the final lap by braking as late as humanly possible into turn one, allowing him to reclaim the lead from Ferrari and Granado, with Mantovani waiting to pounce as well.

Aegerter tried to stretch a safe distance at the front, setting red hot sector times and did just enough to avoid any attacks to the chequered flag. With Aegerter securing his second victory of the season, Ferrari was denied a win on home soil but he still climbed on the podium together with compatriot Andrea Mantovani, who secured his first MotoE podium in a photo finish with Granado. The Brazilian missed out on the podium by only seven thousandths of a second, with Casadei rounding out the top five.

Aegerter’s victory hands him a 20-point advantage in the championship standings over Granado, Casadei 31 points back and with Ferrari on a 35-point deficit.

Results:

The glorious sunshine of Saturday morning was replaced by rain and thunder by the time the premier class came out to fight for pole, injecting some extra adrenaline into Q1 and adding a red flag, a dramatic background and a surprise Ducati on pole in Q2. It’s not often than the same rider headlines both qualifying sessions but Fabio Di Giannantonio did just that on Saturday afternoon, the rookie taking on the dodgy conditions of Q1 on slick tyres and then answering every challenge posed by his rivals to secure a maiden pole position in the premier class on home soil. Even without Rossi in the picture, the home crowd still got a dream front row headed by two rookies, Di Giannantonio ahead of Marco Bezzecchi and with Luca Marini joining them in the parc fermé limelight.

As expected, Ducati machines locked-out the top five in qualifying, albeit not in the order they perhaps predicted, with Johann Zarco and Pecco Bagnaia down on the second row, about three tenths off pole. The five men were the featured actors in Q2, the rest of the cast demoted to occasional cameos or mere extras, but never threatening pole position. Fabio Quartararo was best of the rest and will be starting from the back of the second row, while a frustrated Aleix Espargaro had to make do with seventh place, on third row and in the company of Takaaki Nakagami and Pol Espargaro as top Hondas.

Although only half a second off pole, Enea Bastianini had to settle for fourth row, ahead of Jorge Martin, both riders unable to match the pace of their sister machines. If the two went a bit under the radar throughout qualifying, Marc Marquez didn’t enjoy much anonymity, first robbing Miller of a Q2 place with a perfect tow and then causing a red flag at the start of Q2, with a big high-side-turned-Honda-barbeque at turn two. Thankfully unharmed, Marquez was able to rejoin the action but all the shaking and wobbling on his spare machine did not make him any quicker than 12th. However, he will start from the middle of the fourth row, promoted one position by a 3-place grid penalty for Martin, after impeding another rider in FP3.

The penalty also promotes Jack Miller to fourth row, the Australian quick in Q1 but with Marquez and Di Giannantonio hot on his tail and robbing him across the finish line. Martin drops to the middle of fifth row, in between Michele Pirro and Miguel Oliveira. Although Brad Binder was the trendsetter in Q1, as the first rider to brave going out on slicks while rain flags were waving, he eventually got demoted to 16th on the grid – still not as bad as the Suzukis, with Joan Mir in 17th, Alex Rins in 21st and neither looking like a threat for Q2 positions.

Results:

A clear blue sky and temperatures in the 30s set the scene for qualifying in the lightweight class but that picture did not last for long, as almost-black clouds started seeping in throughout Q2. Despite the threat from above, the asphalt kept dry until the chequered flag, allowing Deniz Öncü to claim pole position in the final couple of minutes of the session and perform an A+ wheelie. Although Dennis Foggia and John McPhee looked like the strongest competition in Q2, Daniel Holgado ended up as the Turkish rider’s biggest challenger, the rookie going from 10th to second on his final flying lap, only nine hundredths of a second off pole position. After proving his pace in practice, Foggia settled for third, closing the front row of the grid.

Sergio Garcia also made his way from outside the top 10 to open the second row of the grid, where he was joined late on by teammate Izan Guevara and an impressive McPhee, who spent a significant amount of time in provisional pole. Rookie Diogo Moreira heads row three ahead of Riccardo Rossi and Q1 leader Ryusei Yamanaka, while Jaume Masia rounded out the top 10 positions, seventh tenths of a second off pole. The Spaniard will share fourth row with Tatsuki Suzuki and last-minute Q1 graduate Lorenzo Fellon, while row five is comprised of rookies Matteo Bertelle, Scott Ogden and David Muñoz - who is finally appropriately-aged to make his grand prix debut and doing it in fine style. Andrea Migno opens a more experienced sixth row, with Carlos Tatay and Stefano Nepa.

A big absence in the day’s action was that of Ayumu Sasaki, who was ruled out of the Italian GP due to concussion and collarbone fractures sustained in a scary crash on Friday.

Results:

The premier class enjoyed what could be their final dry session in Mugello and home favourite Pecco Bagnaia put the local fans through a bit of a rollercoaster, starting the session with a big tumble at Correntaio before going half a second quicker than Friday’s benchmark. The Italian’s tale was the same as Ducati’s in FP3, the session starting with tumbles, gravel trap excursions and technical issues for the Bologna bullets but ending with seven of them hogging the top 10 positions. Although he got demoted from the prime position held on Friday, Aleix Espargaro was the only rider to break the Ducati party, the Aprilia man up to second, two tenths off top spot and with minuscule gaps behind him.

Teammates Luca Marini and Marco Bezzecchi sandwiched Johann Zarco in the rest of the top five, while Enea Bastianini in Gresini’s funky new livery secured sixth position despite a late crash at the final corner, while on a hot lap. Jorge Martin also took Pramac’s new sponsor livery for a trip through the gravel earlier in the session but recovered to claim seventh position. The remaining top 10 places went to two Hondas and a Yamaha, Pol Espargaro leading colleague Takaaki Nakagami, while Marc Marquez struggled to stay in the top 20. Fabio Quartararo yoyo-ed up and down the timesheets throughout the session and found himself out of Q2 contention in the final five minutes of FP3, but the world champion managed to save the day with 10th place.

After leading the session early on, Maverick Viñales missed out on Q2 placements by only two hundredths of a second and will be in fine company in Q1, with the likes of Jack Miller, who could not do better than 15th after a technical issue shortened his running, Marc Marquez, who struggled to get within a second of the leader, the two Suzukis, who got pushed back late in the session and all the KTMs.

Results: