The last two riders who will fight for the pole position of the Italian MotoGP Grand Prix have been found. Franco Morbidelli and Raúl Fernández led the first qualifying session at Mugello, securing spots in Q2, with the Italian even setting a new lap record for the circuit.
After the first flying laps, Fabio Di Giannantonio (Pertamina Enduro VR46/Ducati) was leading ahead of Morbidelli (Prima Pramac/Ducati), who were in the qualifying positions.
The top two positions were reversed after the second flying laps, while Fernández (Trackhouse Racing/Aprilia) moved up to third and was just 0.042s off the top two.
In the final five minutes, the decisive phase of Q1 began, with the riders returning to the track after a brief stop in the pits. There were changes in the timing table.
Fernández briefly took the lead by being the first to complete a flying lap in this phase, while Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM) was in second place. However, both were surpassed by Morbidelli with a new lap record. Fernández moved to second place.
A crash by Pol Espargaró (Red Bull KTM) invalidated laps for several riders, including Di Giannantonio, who could have done even better than Morbidelli in that attempt.
However, no one else managed to dethrone the top two, so Morbidelli and Fernández advanced to Q2. Binder missed the goal by 0.268s, finishing third. Di Giannantonio and Quartararo completed the top five of Q1, so they are expected to start from 14th and 15th in the races, respectively.
