Third pole position in the 2024 MotoGP season for Jorge Martin! In a close qualifying, he beats Francesco Bagnaia – who will be moved back three places on the grid on Sunday. Marc Marquez crashes in Q2 on course for a record and has to settle for fourth place.
This was Q1 in Mugello: The first run in Q1 goes to Franco Morbidelli, who takes the lead ahead of Fabio Di Giannantonio, Raul Fernandez and Fabio Quartararo. After the pit stop, Raul Fernandez makes a statement and takes the lead with the fastest lap of the weekend so far. However, he is overtaken a short time later by Morbidelli, who is 0.142 seconds faster with a new record time. Then it is Di Giannantonio who is on course for a new best time, but he is slowed down by yellow flags after a crash by KTM wildcard Pol Espargaro.
So nothing changes at the top, Morbidelli and Raul Fernandez move up to Q2. Brad Binder comes third and starts from 13th place, next to him are Di Giannantonio and Quartararo. Row six is made up of Marco Bezzecchi, Joan Mir and Johann Zarco. Starting positions 19 to 21 go to a KTM trio with Jack Miller, Augusto Fernandez and Pol Espargaro. In the last row are Aprilia wildcard Lorenzo Savadori, Takaaki Nakagami and Luca Marini.
This is how Q2 of the Italian GP went: The first benchmark in Q2 goes to Jorge Martin, who puts himself in the lead with another record lap, just ahead of Francesco Bagnaia, Maverick Vinales and Marc Marquez. Nothing changes in the second lap, the top four come in for a tire change in that order.
In the final showdown, Bagnaia is the first rider to go on the track and is clearly on course for a new best time until the last intermediate time, but loses almost two tenths in the final sector and is 43 thousandths of a second behind Martin. Bagnaia has to abort his second attempt after a mistake between turns three and four. Then it is Marc Marquez, who is almost three tenths under Martin’s time. But he flies off in turn 11 – with two and a half minutes left in Q2, qualifying is over for him.
Vinales also comes onto the start-finish straight with three red sectors, but he too fails to beat Martin’s best time. The Pramac driver can therefore be happy with pole position. Bagnaia takes second place, but is moved back three positions on Sunday. Third place goes to Vinales. Marc Marquez finishes fourth after his fall, ahead of Enea Bastianini and Franco Morbidelli. Pedro Acosta, Alex Marquez and Aleix Espargaro share row three. Starting positions ten to twelve go to Alex Rins and the Trackhouse duo of Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez.
The weather: After unstable weather on Thursday and Friday, Mugello showed its best side just in time for the MotoGP qualifying on Saturday morning. Under cloudless skies, 20 degrees outside and 34 degrees on the asphalt, the starting positions for the Italian Grand Prix were determined.