Qualifying was postponed after a serious incident in the previous Moto3 Q2 session. The Swiss Jason Dupasquier was flown to a hospital in Florence for further assessment.
Jack Miller emerged from the first lap of the fastest laps with a time of 1: 45.796 minutes on his factory Ducati, although a few moments later Aleix Espargaro from Aprilia used a tow from Francesco Bagnaia’s sister factory Ducati with a time of 1: 45.651 minutes .
That time did not last long, however, when Quartararo – who led FP4 prior to qualifying – led his Yamaha to 1: 45.481 minutes to finish the first few runs.
The Frenchman pursued his fourth pole in a row from 2021 and shot the field on his penultimate flight lap with a lap record of 1: 45.187 seconds.
This time went undisputed to the checkered flag, his closest rival Bagnaia 0.230 seconds behind.
Johann Zarco made a late attack to secure last front row spot on his Pramac Ducati, which Aleix Espargaro – who got through the first quarter – refused a first MotoGP front row on the Aprilia in fourth.
Miller seemed ready to get into the front row on his final lap but ultimately could only finish fifth with a 1: 45.5982 ahead of KTM’s Brad Binder, sixth which was comfortably his best qualifying of the year .
Binder’s teammate Miguel Oliveira was seventh ahead of the Suzuki duo of Alex Rins and Joan Mir, while Petronas SRT’s Franco Morbidelli led Q1 pacemaker Marc Marquez and his Honda teammate Pol Espargaro.
Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM factory race
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Vinales was the largest scalp to fall in the first quarter after a late fall in RP3, and his fast pace during practice made him a target for physically struggling Marc Marquez on the Honda to use as a reference.
Marquez followed Vinales on both races in the first quarter, much to the Yamaha rider’s dismay. The Honda driver started the second quarter with 1: 45.924 seconds.
Vinales was relegated from second to third by Aleix Espargaro late in the first quarter but was well on its way to securing his way into the pole shootout session – only one mistake in the final corner to put him in 13th place Bring launch site.
Vinales, who missed a place by just 0.021 seconds in the second quarter, is supported on the fifth row by LCR Honda Avintia rookie Enea Bastianini and Takaaki Nakagami.
Pramac replacement Michele Pirro will start on the 16th in front of Avintia’s Luca Marini and the Tech3 KTM of the 2019 Mugello race winner, Danilo Petrucci.
Valentino Rossi’s miserable return home continued in qualifying. The Petronas SRT rider was only 19th ahead of Tech3s Iker Lecuona, Aprilias Lorenzo Savadori and Alex Marquez’s LCR Honda.