Andrea Iannone led the first MotoGP practice session of the weekend at Mugello, posting a stunning 1m 47.253s tour to finish over half a second clear of anyone else.
The Suzuki rider, who announced just yesterday he would be leaving the Japenese manufacturer at the end of the season, set the blistering lap in the closing minutes to deny Michele Pirro the top spot.
Ducati test-man Pirro began his first wildcard of the season strongly, ending the session second-fastest with a 1m 43.803s lap around the Italian circuit. Andrea Dovizioso made it two factory Desmosedici’s in the top three behind Pirro.
Maverick Vinales had a solid first session of the weekend for Yamaha, taking fourth less than a tenth behind the two Ducati’s, while Jack Miller was classified fifth despite setting exactly the same time as Marc Marquez.
Marquez therefore slotted in sixth behind the Pramac Ducati, with Franco Morbidelli taking a promising seventh place on his Marc VDS Honda, the young Italian starting his first ever home MotoGP Grand Prix this weekend.
Rounding out the top ten in FP1 were Valentino Rossi in eighth on the second of the factory M1 Yamaha’s, just ahead of the third and final works Ducati of Jorge Lorenzo in ninth.
Cal Crutchlow managed to make it three Honda’s in the top ten, and was the last man within a second of the session-leading Suzuki.
Aleix Espargaro won the battle of the brothers on his Aprilia RS-GP by just under two-tenths of a second, albeit in 13th position, Pol Espargaro following in 14th on the first of the KTM’s.
Dani Perdrosa put in a subdued first session, ending up 16th 1.4 seconds away from Iannone’s lap, just ahead of Honda rookie Takaaki Nakagami.
The session was a clean one as far as incidents were concerned, with only Thomas Luthi going down during the 40-minute free-practice.
The Swiss lost the front of his Honda after gling wide through turn 10, although was luckily unhurt and managed to get the bike started and re-joined the session, managing to end FP1 in 22nd place.
