Mugello Day 2 Report
The second day of Mugello is gone, it was a pretty full one with a lot of things that happened during the day. Of course the main subject was Valentino Rossi’s crash which really left the crowd speechless. We will discuss this later on, since the first events we attended was the FP2 for all classes.
FP2
In the 125cc class Pol Espargaro set the fastest time in the morning with a good 1′58.454 but Nico Terol wasn’t that far away, just 0.064s. Marc Marquez and Bradley Smith were on the provisional first row as well and with fifth place Sandro Cortese were the only riders to get in the ’59s. Provisional second row saw, besides the German rider Cortese, Danny Webb, Tomoyoshi Koyama and Johann Zarco.
In the Moto2 class Sergio Gadea was the fastest man on track with a time of 1′56.244, ahead of Thomas Luthi and Andrea Iannone. Mike Di Meglio finished the front row then we had Simone Corsi, Ratthapark Wilairot, Julian Simon and Karel Abraham. The great battle in this class was underlined by the number of riders within just a second: twenty one. As my friend Giovanni Di Pillo once said “if a rider sneezes in this class he will lose ten positions” and this really lets you understand how close these riders are in terms of lap times.
The MotoGP session started very well; everybody was pushing hard trying to set a good time in the wonderful weather conditions the Mugello track was having today. But as we said, Valentino Rossi had a big highside in the Biondetti’s curves at around 120 mph. The result would be a multiple fracture on the right shinbone so this means he will sit out at least two months of the championship. The reigning world champion has never missed a race since 1995 and plus never faced a crash this hard. This is a pretty big loss for the MotoGP world and already a lot has been said about this; the only thing we can add are our true wishes to see him back soon and on track again. Session leader was Jorge Lorenzo with a good 1′49.282, then Andrea Dovizioso, Dani Pedrosa, Valentino Rossi, Randy De Puniet and Casey Stoner.
QP
Just after the lunch break the engines were already barking again; riders were ready to hit the track and try their best to get on pole position. The temperature was warmer, 30 degrees in air and 51 on the tarmac, and this was another challenge for them all.
In the 125cc class there was again a great battle up front with Pol Esapargaro and Nico Terol but in the end an incredible fastest lap was made by Sandro Cortese on his Derbi – a time of 1′58.315 and a gap of just 0.021s for the pole. In second position we had Pol Espargaro, who also crashed in the last few minutes of the session. The front row was completed with a very good performance from Bradley Smith and then Nicolas Terol. For the second row we had Randy Krummenacher, Marc Marquez, Esteve Rabat and Efren Vazquez.
The Moto2 class saw once again an impressive battle on track and this time the Italian rider Andrea Iannone made it to the top. He set a 1′55.598 lap time pretty early in the session and stayed there until the end. Championship leader Toni Elias was in middle of the pack throughout the session but gained the second position right at the end. Alex De Angelis and Jules Cluzel closed the front row, ahead of Shoya Tomizawa, Sergio Gadea, Gabor Talmacsi and Axel Pons.
MotoGP felt pretty strange without the King of Mugello, Mr. Valentino Rossi, but that is also a part of racing. Dani Pedrosa took the pole at the very last moment with a time of 1′48.819, after a great battle with his rival Jorge Lorenzo who was 0.177s behind the Repsol Honda machine. Ducati duo Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden were back on form finishing in third and fourth, ahead of Colin Edwards and Randy De Puniet. Third row has Ben Spies, Andrea Dovizioso and Aleix Espargaro.
Everything looks ready for a great Sunday race here at Mugello, one of the most beautiful tracks in the world. Stay tuned then for all the updates we will have on the great event tomorrow!
