In the lead-up to the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello, Jorge Martin, the current MotoGP championship leader, secured pole position. This achievement was made even more significant by the fact that Marc Marquez, a strong contender, crashed during his lap that had the potential to surpass Martin’s time. Marquez had initially recorded a respectable time while following Pedro Acosta, but found himself in a disadvantageous position during his second run. However, he made a daring move to overtake Miguel Oliveira and attempted to chase down Franco Morbidelli for a reference on the rest of the lap. Unfortunately, Marquez crashed at Scarperia, ending his chances of securing pole position. Martin’s initial lap record of 1m44.504s was enough to secure him pole position, despite not improving on his second run.
Pecco Bagnaia, the reigning champion, also failed to improve on his second run and will start the race from fifth place due to a three-place grid penalty for impeding Alex Marquez during Friday’s session. However, Bagnaia will still line up second in the sprint race, as the penalty only applies to the full-length race. Maverick Vinales, riding for Aprilia, secured the third-fastest time by closely following Bagnaia on his first run. Although he briefly threatened to improve his time towards the end, he ultimately settled for a slightly slower time that would still place him on the front row.
Marc Marquez, despite his crash, will start the Italian Grand Prix in third place, behind Martin and Vinales, and ahead of Bagnaia. Enea Bastianini, Bagnaia’s teammate, secured fifth place, while Franco Morbidelli, who had already broken the lap record in Q1, placed sixth. Pedro Acosta, the sole KTM/Gas Gas RC16 rider in Q2, settled for seventh place. The younger Marquez and Aleix Espargaro from Aprilia will complete the third row.
Alex Rins, leading the Yamaha team, secured the tenth position, followed by Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez from Trackhouse Aprilia. Fernandez would have been on the second row if he had matched his Q1 performance. A crash by wildcard Pol Espargaro caused yellow flags, affecting Fabio Di Giannantonio’s chances of advancing to Q2. Di Giannantonio settled for 14th place on the grid.
Fabio Quartararo, riding the second Yamaha, will start from 15th place, narrowly missing out on a spot in Q2 despite Yamaha’s improved performance and his own strong race pace. Marco Bezzecchi, Quartararo’s teammate in the VR46 team, placed 16th, followed by Joan Mir as the top Honda qualifier. Mir received a timely tow from Quartararo, ending Johann Zarco’s streak as the top Honda qualifier since Zarco’s arrival.
Jack Miller had a disappointing performance, finishing in 19th place in the second works KTM. He was closely followed by Augusto Fernandez from Tech3 Gas Gas and wildcard Espargaro, despite the latter’s crash.