2021 Emilia-Romagna MotoGP FP4 Result: Lecuona Leads As Slicks Make An Appearance

The final practice session for the premier class started on a cold but drying track and after a short outing on wet rubber, slicks were finally unwrapped from their blankets, in the hope of getting a better picture for a presumably dry Sunday race. While the early gamble seemed to pay off for Pecco Bagnaia, who took control of the session with 10 minutes remaining, it seemed that many of his rivals were riding on an ice rink, with thankfully harmless crashes for Iker Lecuona, Enea Bastianini, Marc Marquez, Michele Pirro, Joan Mir, Jorge Martin and Alex Marquez, with turns 2 and 15 as the main culprits.

Bagnaia seemed to have the most confidence in the tricky conditions, but Lecuona quickly recovered from his crash to snatch the lead with 5 minutes remaining. Their closest rivals were almost four seconds slower at that stage but with the track rapidly improving, the gaps reduced somewhat, although Lecuona and Bagnaia were untouchable at the front. Jack Miller’s late swap to slicks promoted him to third, a second and a half behind the leading duo and narrowly ahead of Fabio Quartararo.

Miguel Oliveira joined the top five ahead of Maverick Viñales and Luca Marini, with Danilo Petrucci, Johann Zarco and Alex Rins rounding out the top 10 positions. Franco Morbidelli and Jorge Martin were the final riders to post times within four seconds of the leader. The likes of Marquez and Mir did not rejoin the action following their tumbles and dropped to the bottom of the timesheets, while Aleix Espargaro only did a couple of laps and was the only rider not tempted by slicks.

Results: