PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
Andrea Iannone threw down a blistering lap to put his Ducati on pole position in front of the home crowd for tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix. Iannone’s 1:46.489 went down in the books as not only the fastest time at Mugello but also the Italian’s first career MotoGP pole position.
The times were tight, with all 12 riders in Q2 within a second of Iannone’s fast time. In fact, the man with the hot streak in MotoGP—Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo—was just shy of pole position by .095 of a second.
Joining the pair on the front row is Iannone’s teammate, and fellow Italian, Andrea Dovizioso.
Starting the second row was CWM LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow, who led the way for Honda while the factory Repsol Honda duo continue to struggle. In fifth was Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Aleix Espargaro, a valiant effort for the older Espargaro brother, especially in light of his recent surgery to repair a ligament in his thumb.
Ducati’s Michele Pirro was sixth, edging out Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa by .005 of a second. Lorenzo’s teammate Valentino Rossi was eighth. The championship points leader once again struggled in qualifying, but so far that hasn’t affected the Italian much come race time.
Rounding out the top 10 was Aleix’ teammate Maverick Vinales and his brother Pol Espargaro on the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine.
However, the bombshell of the day was the absence of reigning World Champion Marc Marquez in the all-important Q2 session. A poor FP3 strategy put the Repsol Honda rider in Q1, which went from bad to worse when the Spaniard failed to advance to Q2, getting edged out in the final moments of the session and qualified a disappointing 13th.
Aspar’s Nicky Hayden qualified 19th as the top production Honda.
2015 MotoGP Mugello Qualifying Results
1. Andrea Iannone (Ducati) 1:46.489
2. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 1:46.584
3. Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) 1:46.610
4. Cal Crutchlow (Honda) 1:46.657
5. Aleix Espargaro (Suzuki) 1:46.854
6. Michele Pirro (Ducati) 1:46.870
7. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 1:46.875
8. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1:46.923
9. Maverick Vinales (Suzuki) 1:46.934
10. Pol Espargaro (Yamaha) 1:47.050
