Espargaró Leads Mugello Practice For Aprilia
Calum Gill 14:58 27/05/2022
Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaró headed as many as five Ducatis in second Friday practice for the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello.
Ducati already held a 1-2-3, headed by Johann Zarco’s new-liveried Pramac-run Ducati Desmosedici GP22, for most of the session - albeit Zarco did manage to cause a red-flag stoppage soon after setting his time. The Frenchman dropped his GP22 coming through the Materassi corner and it slid through to gravel to come to a halt at the next turn, Borgo San Lorenzo, with the gravel it brought with it causing a stoppage for clean-up work. Once the session resumed and transitioned into late-session time attacks on fresh rubber, Ducati went as far as to briefly lock out the top seven. Yet Espargaró crashed the Ducati party with just over two minutes left on the clock by jumping to the top spot with the aid of a tow from team-mate Viñales.
Francesco Bagnaia came up half a tenth short of striking back but was still nearly four tenths up on the next-best rider - factory Ducati team-mate Jack Miller. Zarco crashed again at Correntaio in the final moments of the session, settling for fourth ahead of VR46 Ducati’s Luca Marini and Gresini Ducati’s Enea Bastianini. Brad Binder put a KTM in the top 10 in seventh, with points leader Fabio Quartararo and Pol Espargaró doing the same for Yamaha and Honda respectively - the pair slotting in right behind VR46 Ducati rookie Marco Bezzecchi.
There were therefore no Suzukis in the top 10, its lead rider Álex Rins settling for 13th after a late crash at Materassi, behind Pramac's Jorge Martín and factory Honda rider Marc Márquez. Miguel Oliveira put his Red Bull KTM in 14th place, ahead of LCR Honda's Takaaki Nakagami and Gresini Ducati rookie Fabio Di Giannantonio. Viñales was 17th, heading Álex Márquez (LCR Honda), Joan Mir (Suzuki), Franco Morbidelli (Yamaha) and Andrea Dovizioso (RNF Yamaha). Remy Gardner put his Tech3 KTM in 22nd, followed by RNF Yamaha's Darryn Binder, Ducati wildcard Michele Pirro, Tech3 stablemate Raúl Fernández, and Aprilia tester Lorenzo Savadori.
