Andrea Iannone claimed Ducati’s first pole at Mugello since 2007, while Marc Marquez experienced his worst ever MotoGP Qualifying.
It was a day of contrasts at the Gran Premio D’Italia as Ducati Team’s Andrea Iannone sent the Italian fans at the Autodromo del Mugello into rapture as he claimed his first career MotoGP™ pole position in near perfect conditions.
Countering that was the dramatic action involving the reigning MotoGP™ World Champion Marc Marquez, as he failed to make it through to Q2 for the first time in his career and will start Sunday’s race from the head of the fifth row in thirteenth.
Iannone, riding with a fractured humerus sustained during a testing crash at the Tuscany Circuit, took advantage of the softer option tyre available to Ducati to set a 1’46.489, which was almost seven-tenths quicker than Dani Pedrosa’s pole record from 2013: “I am very pleased with how things went today! For sure in my condition this result was in no way expected, but in the end me and my team did a great job and we managed to improve. The only problem I have at the moment is my shoulder condition, because it needs more time to get back to 100%: tomorrow will be a tough race but I will not give in”
Marquez struggled throughout the day, getting caught out in FP3 and finishing down in eleventh on the combined timesheets. It was only the second time the Spaniard has failed to automatically qualify for Q2, the first being at Mugello in 2013.
A crash in FP4 only compounded matters and as Marquez attempted to make it through from Q1 he set a time good enough for second on the timesheets with 2 minutes to go in the session. Thinking that the job was done, it was then that disaster struck for him and his team. Yonny Hernandez on the Octo Pramac Racing Ducati displaced him in the final seconds, securing the Columbians progress through to Q2 at Marquez’ expense. This means that Marquez will have to start Sunday’s race from the front of the fourth row in 13th, his worst ever MotoGP™ Qualifying performance: “We can't be happy about today, because this was the worst qualifying result that we have had in MotoGP. Starting in the morning, we didn't use the new tyre and that took us into Q1 – in which we had a problem that prevented us from progressing to Q2. Nevertheless, I think we have a good pace for tomorrow, although it is clear that starting from so far back we will suffer a lot.”
Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo will be a force to be reckoned with come Sunday’s race, as he demonstrated an incredibly consistent race pace throughout Free Practice. The double MotoGP™ World Champion was only 0.095s behind Dovizioso in Q2 and will start from second on the grid, a feat made all the more impressive as Lorenzo does not have the softer option tyre available to him: “We must be proud of our performance, because we improved the bike, which has been our goal for today. We had to improve our pace by half a second and maybe we didn‘t do that but we did shave off three-tenths. Today has been a great day. We couldn‘t get the pole position, but second place is great.”
Andrea Dovizioso followed up Iannone’s amazing pole lap by securing third on the grid, making it two Ducati GP15’s on the front row, and the team will be pushing hard for their first win since Stoner’s victory in Australia in 2010: “It was a great qualifying session for our team, because there are two Ducati GP15 bikes on the front row. I had a good feeling with the bike when I did my lap, and this is very important in view of the race because it means that we have the speed to be able to fight for the leading positions.”
CWM LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow won the battle of the Satellite riders, as he once again impressed during Q2 to finish fourth as the fastest Honda on the grid: “Overall I was happy, because I tried a hard front tyre and I was happy with that, so much so I even qualified with it. I just missed out on the front row again, but I made a small mistake which was my own fault.”
Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Aleix Espargaro was another rider who had to grit his teeth as he was suffering from the injury to his right thumb sustained during his Free Practice crash at Le Mans. The Spaniard was impressive after making through as the second fastest rider from Q1, and will start the race from the middle of the second row in fifth, although he has concerns about the affect his injury might have on his pace over race distance.
To top off an almost perfect day for Ducati, their test rider Michele Pirro managed to set a time good enough for sixth in Q2 and will complete the second row for Sunday’s race, an effort which was the best qualifying performance from a wild card rider since Ben Spies claimed fifth in 2008 at Indianapolis.
Dani Pedrosa on the second Factory Repsol Honda RC213V showed he is recovering from his arm pump surgery by setting the seventh fastest time. The Spaniard will start from the head of the third row, ahead of nine-time World Champion Valentino Rossi.
Rossi, once again, could not perform as he wanted during qualifying, although he wont be too disappointed to start the race from eighth on the grid as his last three victories have been achieved after he qualified in that position: “I improved a lot and my lap time was not so bad, but it wasn‘t enough. All the top riders were able to improve their pace a lot, so apart from my starting position on the third row, which is not fantastic, I‘m quite happy about today.”
Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Maverick Viñales will start the race from ninth on the grid, with Monster Yamaha Tech 3 teammates Pol Espargaro & Bradley Smith in tenth and eleventh respectively.
Avintia Racing’s Hector Barbera was the leading Open class rider in fifteenth, with the Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Factory spec Honda of Scott Redding down in 17th.
