Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi claimed pole position on home soil as he led a closely-contested qualifying session for MotoGP’s Italian Grand Prix.
Provisional pole position exchanged hands on several occasions during the 15-minute Q2 session before Rossi set a new track record at Mugello, to the delight of the home supporters, to take his first pole since Motegi 2016.
Rossi’s pole lap of 1:46.208 was just 0.035s faster than Ducati’s Jorge Lorenzo, as less than three tenths of a second covered the leading seven riders during an ultra-close denouement.
Rossi’s Yamaha team-mate Maverick Vinales had to negotiate his way through Q1 and secured a spot in Q2, going on to round out the front-row of the grid.
Andrea Iannone threatened to end Suzuki’s barren spell but ultimately wound up fourth, in front of Pramac’s Danilo Petrucci and championship leader Marc Marquez.
Marquez had seemed poised to storm to the front but backed off through the middle sector, before a scruffy final lap was ruined when he almost crashed at the last corner.
Andrea Dovizioso rounded out the lead group in seventh spot, his time just 0.292s slower than compatriot Rossi, with a larger gap splitting the Ducati rider and eighth-placed Cal Crutchlow.
Tech 3 Yamaha’s Johann Zarco and Suzuki’s Alex Rins rounded out the top 10, the pair both recovering from separate crashes during the final practice session.
Jack Miller was 11th for Pramac while Marc VDS’ Franco Morbidelli ensured that there will be a home rider on each of the front four rows of the grid, his best lap within eight-tenths of Rossi.
Tito Rabat tried to use the slipstream from Vinales in Q1 but the Yamaha rider moved aside during the closing stages of Rabat’s quick lap, and the Avintia rider was left in 13th place.
Tech 3’s Hafizh Syahrin and the lead KTM of Pol Espargaro were next up, in front of Alvaro Bautista, Bradley Smith, Takaaki Nakagami and Tom Luthi.
Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa had a dismal day, failing to make it through automatically to Q2, consigning him to Q1, and he compounded matters by crashing in FP4.
Pedrosa visibly struggled on the Honda RC213V – with his head shaking along the pit straight – and he wound up 20th of the 24 participants.
Aprilia endured a dismal showing on home soil as Aleix Espargaro and Scott Redding were only 21st and 23rd respectively, with only Karel Abraham and Xavier Simeon for company at the back.
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