Italian MotoGP: Nakagami tops Warm-up, polesitter Quartararo eleventh

Taka Nakagami, produced a series of top laps to lead the way in warm-up for the MotoGP Italian Grand Prix at Mugello, round six of the championship.

The LCR Honda Idemitsu rider lapped consistently in a subdued session, with Jason Dupasquier at the forefront of the riders minds after the crash in Moto3 qualifying which left him in a serious condition overnight. His session best of 1m 46.746 lead the way at the chequered flag.

The Japanese rider has left himself a big task to translate that Sunday pace into race success after qualifying down in 15th yesterday.

Johann Zarco was the best of the title contenders and front row starters as he finished the session just 0.086s away from the top time for Pramac Ducati in a close session - the top twenty riders were all within a second of Nakagami’s run.

Brad Binder, who broke the Mugello speed record earlier in the weekend looked fast again, setting the third best time ahead of the race for Red Bull KTM.

Maverick Vinales starts down in 13th after his Q1 slipstream issue with Marc Marquez saw him miss out on Q2. The factory Yamaha rider showed his pace remains strong although his task to make an impact in the race is huge with the fifth best time in warm-up.

Alex Rins was the top Suzuki in fourth despite a short trip through the gravel late on.

Marquez was back to his towing plan in warm-up, this time spending much of the session behind Francesco Bagnaia. Setting his best lap shadowing Iker Lecuona the Repsol Honda rider was forced to sit up and run into the gravel at turn twelve later on, stressing his injury on his way to sixth.

His brother Alex Marquez (LCR Honda Castrol) was just behind on the timesheets in seventh, with the winner the last time the race was run back in 2019, Danilo Petrucci, in eighth for the Tech 3 KTM team.

Enea Bastianini was the top rookie in the session for Avintia Esponsorama in ninth, while Aleix Espargaro ensured all the manufacturers were represented in the top ten as he pushed his Aprilia and his arm pump recovery to the limit.

Championship leader and polesitter Fabio Quartararo had a quiet session on the Yamaha down in eleventh, just ahead of the man one point behind him in the title standings, Bagnaia, who was twelfth as the clock reached zero and spent the final minutes changing his racing leathers instead as they were too tight and uncomfortable.

A crash at turn eleven hampered reigning champion Joan Mir, leaving him low on track time and 13th in the session.

Miguel Oliveira had a mechanical issue and immediately pulled off track, but that left him litlle time on the circuit too, the Portuguese rider finished the session 13th.

Michele Pirro replaces Jorge Martin at Pramac, he set the 15th best time.

Valentino Rossi saw small improvements in his lap speed to finish 15th on the Petronas Yamaha.

Pol Espargaro spent much of his time trying out medium tyres as an opition, which left him down the order in 18th for Honda, while back-to-back race winner Jack Miller looked calm and race-ready despite only posting the 19th best time for Ducati.