MotoGP

 

Having taken MotoGP™ pole at the Gran Premio d’Italia TIM on Saturday afternoon Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) heads the grid again for Sunday’s sixth race of the year, with Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing) and Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) also featuring on the front row.

A 1’47.270 lap gave Marquez his sixth consecutive pole this year and his seventh successive top grid spot including Valencia last year, as his perfect form continued.

An excellent effort from Iannone (+0.18s) saw him show his pace again to get his first premier class front row start, the perfect response to his two recent DNF results and an ideal performance from an Italian rider on an Italian bike at the Gran Premio d’Italia TIM.

Lorenzo got his third row one result of the year in third place, meanwhile, as he lapped a quarter of a second off Marquez.

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) still holds the pole record at Mugello with his 1’47.157s time from last year – and he qualified in fourth position with a late lap 0.314s from today’s pole.

A big crash on an out lap ended Monster Yamaha Tech3 rider Pol Espargaro’s session early as he went down at turn nine and was clearly annoyed, but the Spaniard was unhurt and still ended up 5th on the grid.

A good qualifying result for Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team) in sixth saw him outperform teammate Andrea Dovizioso who was eighth.

Sandwiching Dovizioso on the third row are Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3) and Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP) in seventh and ninth places respectively, with all three qualifying within 0.5s of pole.

Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) did not get the Q2 result he wanted as he qualified down in 10th for his 300th Grand Prix race.

Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) and Aleix Espargaro (NGM Forward Racing) made it through from Q1 but were ultimately 11th and 12th.

 

Moto2

 

The Moto2™ race on Sunday at Mugello will commence with Esteve Rabat (Marc VDS Racing) at the front of the grid, ahead of Sam Lowes (Speed Up) and Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP) on the first row.

Rabat led for the majority of the session and a best lap time of 1’52.718 saw him claim pole position once again for the fourth time this season. Lowes and Cortese completed the top three and both were within 0.197s of the Spanish rider. It is rookie Lowes’ first front row in Moto2.

The top five was completed by Jonas Folger (AGR Team) and Dominique Aegerter (Technomag CarXpert), Folger maintaining his top five spot for much of the session, whilst Aegerter improved in the closing stages. The pair were just 0.290s and 0.375s from Rabat respectively.

The top ten was rounded out by Luis Salom (Pons HP 40), Jordi Torres (Mapfre Aspar Team), Franco Morbidelli (Italtrans Racing Team), Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2) and Marcel Schrotter (Tech 3).

Alex De Angelis (Tasca Racing Moto2) suffered a heavy crash at the start of the session, as did Randy Krummenacher (Octo IodaRacing Team). Julian Simon (Italtrans Racing Team) crashed with just one minute to go. All riders were unhurt.

 

Moto3

 

Moto3™ qualifying at Mugello ended with Alex Rins (Estrella Galicia 0,0) outperforming the rest of the field at the picturesque Mugello track, with Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and Jakub Kornfeil (Calvo Team) joining him on the front row.

Alex Rins lost the front at turn 2 and crashed just after setting a new Moto3 Mugello pole record time of 1’56.999, later rejoining the session having rushed back to his box after the incident.

Championship leader Miller as just over 0.25s behind the Spaniard in second place, whilst a late improvement from Kornfeil left him 0.327s adrift of Rins in third – for his first ever front row GP start.

Row two, meanwhile, comprises home rider Romano Fenati (SKY Racing Team VR46), the experienced Alexis Masbou (Ongetta-Rivacold) and the ever-improving Alex Marquez (Estrella Galicia 0,0).

Rookie Karel Hanika (Red Bull KTM Ajo) got his best grid slot to date in seventh, ahead of Juanfran Guevara (Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3) and Brad Binder (Ambrogio Racing) on the third row. Efren Vazquez (SAXOPRINT RTG) completed the top ten.

Jules Danilo (Ambrogio Racing) had a big high side at Turn 8 but was not harmed in the crash.

Source: motogp.com