Marco Bezzecchi set the pace on Friday at the San Marino MotoGP. The Italian set a new lap record at Misano, being one of the two to break into the 1m30s. Miguel Oliveira struggled and could only manage 22nd place.
After the initial laps, the leader was Maverick Viñales (Aprilia), ahead of Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha). The Spanish rider was then overtaken by Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM), who took the lead.
This situation did not last long, as the South African was soon passed by Viñales, Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), and Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati). Within the first ten minutes, Viñales was the first to go faster than the reference time from FP1. Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Racing Team/Ducati) did even better to take the lead.
Behind the Italian was Viñales at 0.009s, followed by Martín, Michele Pirro (Aruba.it Ducati) and Bagnaia. The timing table then had some stability… until Martín beat Bezzecchi by 0.233s at the end of the first half of the session. The man who followed in first position was Dani Pedrosa (Red Bull KTM), one of the wildcard riders.
The Spaniard remained on top for a few minutes, until being surpassed by Martín. With 12 minutes remaining, Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM) had a fall, without major consequences. Shortly after, his teammate Binder moved up to third on the leaderboard… before Bezzecchi returned to the lead. In the last ten minutes, Viñales took the lead with the first ever lap completed in Misano in 1m30s. This was a decisive phase in the fight for direct access to the second qualifying round, so the riders were launching their final attacks on the clock. In the final minutes, Viñales did not improve, unlike Bezzecchi who in the last attempt set a new record lap in 1m30.846s to surpass the rival by 0.126s. Pedrosa finished in third, followed by Martín and Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Racing Team/Ducati).Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda) was sixth ahead of Bagnaia, with Álex Márquez (Gresini/Ducati), Binder and Raúl Fernández (CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team/Aprilia) also securing direct access to Q2. Pol Espargaró (GasGas Tech3/KTM) was 11th and missed that goal by just 24 thousandths.
Among others, Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia), Quartararo, Franco Morbidelli (Monster Energy Yamaha), Miller and Oliveira (CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team) were also relegated to Q1. The Portuguese had a tough session and only managed to reach 22nd place.
