Andrea Iannone delighted the thousands of Ducati fans at Mugello by claiming his maiden MotoGP pole position at Mugello. The 25 year old put his recent injuries behind him to snatch pole from Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo who unwittingly provided a valuable slipstream which assisted Iannone on his way to the fastest time.
Headlines were made elsewhere before the pole position shootout ever took place with Marc Marquez plunged into a Q1 dogfight after finishing a frantic FP3 down in eleventh place. The Honda RC213V continued to look decidedly nervous underneath the world champion who tumbled in FP4 but after setting a 1:47.240 in Q1, the Repsol Honda squad brought him in assuming he was safe.
The team would receive a nasty shock though with a minute to go as Yonny Hernandez clocked a 1:47.117 to relegate Marquez to third and with no time remaining to strike back, Marc was stranded, leaving him to start from a career-worst thirteenth in the premier class.
With his teammate eliminated, Dani Pedrosa took up the challenge for Repsol Honda in Q2 but he was fractionally outpaced on the first runs by Lorenzo who held provisional pole on a 1:46.808. At the start of his second run, Jorge improved to a 1:46.658 but little did he know, Iannone was locked onto his rear wheel and set a 1:46.489 to rip pole position from his grasp.
Although Lorenzo found time on his next lap, a poor final sector saw him stay in second and the Spaniard will be surrounded by the powerful Ducatis on the front row tomorrow after Andrea Dovizioso qualified third. Cal Crutchlow eventually finished as the leading Honda rider in fourth with Aleix Espargaro performing heroics to take fifth on the Suzuki after escaping Q1.
Michele Pirro gave Ducati yet more reasons to cheer with sixth place, outqualifying Pedrosa and championship leader Valentino Rossi, while Maverick Vinales shone to qualify ninth ahead of Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith on the Tech 3 Yamahas.
2015 GRAN PREMIO D’ITALIA TIM – QUALIFYING CLASSIFICATION
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