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Marco Bezzecchi and Maverick Viñales blitzed the all-time MotoGP lap record in a blistering afternoon practice session at Misano as wild card Dani Pedrosa impressed again in third.
VR46 Ducati rider Bezzecchi, nursing a wrist injury after being caught up in last weekend’s first corner pile-up at Catalunya, knocked Aprilia Racing’s Viñales off the top spot on his final lap with seconds on the clock with a time of 1:30.846.
The Italian was 0.126s ahead of Viñales, who first broke the lap record with the first-ever sub 1m 31s lap in 1:30.917 with around 10 minutes of the one-hour session remaining, which at the time put him four tenths ahead of Bezzecchi.
KTM test rider Pedrosa, sixth in FP1 on the new carbon fibre chassis, shone again as the 37-year-old wound back the years in his third wild card appearance of the season to go third quickest, 0.255s off Bezzecchi.
Ducati test rider Michele Pirro, fastest in the morning, dropped to 16th.
Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin, second in the championship and 50 points behind Francesco Bagnaia, was fourth.
Bagnaia ended day one at the Marco Simoncelli circuit in a solid seventh on the Lenovo Ducati as he made a swift return to his home Grand Prix after a huge high-side at Catalunya last weekend, which left the reigning world champion with an injured knee.
Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez, heavily linked with a move to Gresini Ducati alongside his brother Alex in 2024, benefitted from a tow off Pedrosa in the final minutes and jumped from 15th into third.
Marquez then dropped to sixth behind Martin and Luca Marini (VR46 Ducati) in the final moments but sealed his passage into Qualifying 2.
In a frenetic finish to the session, RNF Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez came off at Turn 14, bringing out the yellow flag, while Pol Espargaro crashed at Turn 15 on the GASGAS Tech 3 KTM.
His brother, Aleix – who clinched a dream double on the factory Aprilia last weekend at Catalunya – also crashed at the same corner with a minute to go.
In stark contrast to team-mate Viñales, Espargaro has struggled to make an impact at the sharp end of the leaderboard so far and finished 12th, missing out on automatic progression to Q2.
Alex Marquez was eighth on the Gresini Ducati ahead of Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM), while Fernandez earned his place in Q2 after finishing 10th despite his crash.
Fabio Quartararo and Monster Yamaha team-mate Franco Morbidelli were 13th and 14th respectively, while HRC test rider Stefan Bradl was 15th.
Aussie Jack Miller slid off at Turn 3 moments after breaking into the top 10 on the red Bull KTM and was 17th, nine-tenths off Bezzecchi’s lap record.
Pramac Ducati’s Johann Zarco also has work to do after completing the session in a lowly 18th.
