Francesco Bagnaia was the fastest in the Emilia-Romagna MotoGP practice session. The 2022 and 2023 champion set a new lap record for the premier class at Misano.
Several riders had their first flying laps canceled due to track limit violations, meaning only on their second attempts did the timesheet become representative. Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati) initially led ahead of Bagnaia (Ducati).
The Spaniard maintained his lead, but the Italian briefly lost his position to Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GasGas Tech3/KTM)… before climbing back to the top. Martín was the first to dip into the 1m30s, but Bagnaia quickly bettered that to reclaim the lead.
With less than 35 minutes remaining, Martín returned to the top spot, 80 thousandths faster than Bagnaia. At this point, Acosta remained third, while Marc Márquez (Gresini/Ducati) was in fourth… before moving up to second near the final ten minutes.
Shortly after, Bagnaia set the fastest lap of the session and a new lap record with a time of 1m30.286s, beating Martín by 0.198s. Marc Márquez finished third, followed by Enea Bastianini (Ducati) at 0.321s behind the leader. Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) completed the top five, trailing six-tenths off the lead.
Franco Morbidelli (Prima Pramac/Ducati), Marco Bezzecchi (Pertamina Enduro VR46/Ducati), Maverick Viñales (Aprilia), Acosta, and Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia) also secured spots in the second phase of qualifying. Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM) missed out by just 0.050s, finishing 11th.
The end of the session was marked by several crashes, causing yellow flags and lap eliminations. The most serious incident involved Fabio Di Giannantonio (Pertamina Enduro VR46/Ducati), who was left somewhat shaken after the crash.
Timesheets:
All the big hitters are there! 🤝
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) September 20, 2024
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