Italtrans Mattia Pasini will start his home race at Mugello from pole position on Sunday after beating Germany's Marcel Schroetter to the top spot.
Pasini posted a best time of 1:51.575 to give him a slender gap of just 0.030s, whilst Alex Marquez was a further 0.037s off pole to line up third on the grid and complete the front-row.
The session saw an early faller with Lorenzo Baldassarri tucking the front at Turn 10. Stefano Manzi also fell, his mistake coming at Turn 1. Both riders walked away from their respective incidents uninjured.
Current championship leader Francesco Bagnaia had a quiet session, sitting in the garage for a prolonged period midway through – he’ll start from fourth ahead of fellow countryman Simone Corsi in fifth for his 250th Grand Prix start.
Fastest of the rookies was Romano Fenati in front of his home crowd, the Italian was in and around the top ten throughout the session on board his Kalex machine, eventually finishing sixth quickest.
Luca Marini sealed his best qualifying result of the year in seventh, with Baldassarri continuing the Italian domination in the top ten – the Jerez winner recovered to eighth on his final run.
Joan Mira and Jorge Navarro completed the top ten, with Miguel Oliveira narrowly missing out in 11th by just 0.033s.
